So, here they were. A group of young trainers who had just recieved their first Pokemon and had embarked on their journey to become the best like no one ever was... Or something like that. Alex didnt really try to socialize with the others, just remaining at the back of the group and observing them. Eevee had been out of his ball all the time and had been rolling in every mud puddle he could find... That's gonna be fun to clean up.

Well, could be worse. He could have been attacking every Pokemon he encountered. That would have terrified Alex, if a Pokemon would be so psychotic as to attack everything... Let's just say that his uncle would have loved such types of Pokemon.

Suddenly, Eevee cried out. Alex quickly ran to where the sound came from and didnt think about informing the group. As the cries came closer Alex could hear some squawking from some birds. This wasnt going to end well, was it? He pushed a branch out of his way and then saw Eevee on the ground, crying for help. The little pokemon was being pecked on by two Spearows. They didnt seem to notice Alex, as they were far too occupied with their helpless prey.

Alex acted quickly; He broke the branch he was holding and charged the two Spearows with it, attempting to hit the bigger one. Before the Spearow had any idea what happened he got hit by the branch on it's beak. The smaller Spearow got starteled but was quick to recover. He was about to attack Alex when Eevee showved sand in it's face. It staggered back for a moment, trying to get the sand out of it's eyes. Then, when it could finally see clearly again, it wished it didnt. Alex hit the Spearow between the eyes and after this the Spearow decided that it had enough and ran off.

Alex huffed. Good they had fought him of- His thought was broken up by a painfull feeling in his back. It was the other Spearow, Alex had completly forgotten about him.

Before Alex could turn around the Spearow had attacked him again. This one seemed to be alot more determined to fight. As he tried to attack Alex a third time Eevee intervened with a tackle. Eevee let out a low growl at the Spearow and it responded with a loud squawk before spreading it's wings, trying to intimidate Eevee. It didnt work though, Eevee was determined to avenge his earlier loss against this Spearow and he didnt seem to take to kindly to the Spearow attacking Alex.

"Thanks Eevee." Alex said while groaning in pain. "Now let's teach this bird that he shouldnt mess with us!" Eevee barked at Alex, confirming his determination.

The Spearow charged at Eevee. It tried to peck Eevee's eyes out. "Wait for it..." The Spearow was fast and the beak came very close... But not close enough. "Now Eevee! Use your tail to jump!" Eevee used his tail to get airborne and leap over the Spearow. The Spearow had build up so much momentum that it couldnt stop and that made it run straight into a tree. Before it was able to turn around Eevee had already tackled it. The Spearow was pinned and had no where to go. The Spearow was looking with eyes full of fear up at Alex, then Eevee, then back at Alex. It cried out for help, but no one would be able to hear it.

Alex looked at the bird. It had admited it's defeat and was now awaiting the final blow. A blow which would never come.

"Let him go Eevee." Alex said while looking at the little bird.

Eevee let the Spearow go and limped back to Alex. The Spearow widened it's eyes. It had not expected mercy, it probably didnt even know mercy. It let out a soft squawk to which Eevee responded with a bark. Eevee then pulled at Alex's leg and looked up at him. Alex knew what Eevee was trying to ask him and he didnt blame him. Eventhough this Spearow had just attacked Eevee it didnt seem like he had any grudge with the Spearow and he wanted Alex to help him.

Alex slowly walked up to the Spearow, who seemed abit hesitant about this. Alex knelt infront of the Spearow and got a potion out of his bag. "This might sting abit." The Spearow was a tough one, he didnt even make a sound as Alex applied the potion. Alex looked over his shoulder to Eevee. "Come over here will you? Since I'm busy anyway I might aswell fix you up too." Eevee limped up with a smile on it's face.

After Alex applied another potion to Eevee he got up. It seemed like the Spearow and Eevee had started a conversation about something, it made Alex smile. They seemed to get along, like those two trainers in the grou-

...

"DAMMIT! Eevee, we have to go! Now!"

Eevee and the Spearow looked up in suprise to Alex's sudden outburst. The ofcourse didnt know that Alex had just now lost the group, well, not just now... Already the moment he ran after Eevee. Now he was alone, in the forest, and it was getting dark... Could it get any worse? "If it starts to rain..." Alex mumbled to himself. "Come on Eevee, we gotta find the group!" Eevee responded with a bark and ran off ahead.

Alex was about to follow him when the Spearow squawked. It looked up at Alex with it's little eyes. Alex didnt really know what to do, did the Spearow want to follow him? Well... He could use a new pokemon, so why not ask?

Alex grabbed one of his Pokeblocks and put it on the palm of his hand. He then kept his hand close to Spearow. "You want to join me and Eevee in some adventures?" The Spearow pecked away at the Pokeblock and then looked up at Alex. After short time he nodded. "Good, then dont struggle, alright?" Alex grabbed a pokeball and rolled it up to Spearow who then got absorbed by the red light. The Pokeball rocked back and forth for a while but eventually the beloved click was heard.

Alex picked up the ball. Awesome, he had just caught his first Pokemon and... Where's Eevee... Ooh Arceus no, not again!

But Alex didnt need to worry. Eevee was happily barking at him because he had found the trail they had been walking on earlier.

Alex had initially thought that catching up with the group would be hard but he was mistaken, all he had to do was follow the trail of incapacitated Pidgeys.

As he caught up with the group he was dumbstruck by how battered most of them looked. Apparently Alex wasnt the only one who had a confrontation with Pokemon. Though the group apparantly had a nasty Spinarak problem. Before he could ask anything though he heard Peggy saying that they should head for Cherrygrove. Well duh, that's where they were heading to anyway, why should they chan- Alex realised it the moment the thought crossed his mind. Ofcourse... Abigail. Apparently she wanted to head over to Blackthorn... Through the caves. Was she insane!?

Melody suggested to put it to a vote, ofcourse she suported her mistress' notion of going to Blackthorn. Airhead had apparently decided to join the twisted sisters and wanted to head into the caves aswell.

Then Abigail went batshit insane on Peggy. Insulting Peggy in everyway Abigail could.

Alex balled his fists out of anger. Instead of lashing out he was trying his best to control himself and greet the group. "Hey guys, what the hell happened to all of you, you look terrible!" He looked over at Abigail with a smirk on his face. "Except for you, I love your new hairstyle. I think it really fits your inner self." He then addressed the whole group again. "I dont know what happened to all of you but I know for certain that we should head to Cherrygrove. It's much closer and I dont want to be in the caves when night falls. Elm told us to go to Cherrygrove, so lets listen to the man who has years of experience, alright?"

He turned around and started walking in the direction of Cherrygrove. As he walked away he said; "Ooh, and who ever was responsible for this whole mess you guys were in, I think you should appologise to the entire group cause it were your actions who put them all in danger. Alright?"

~Melody Hemlock~

“Wow, okay," said Abigail, snickering.. "That is the lamest excuse I've ever heard. So, what, are you a little mama's girl or something? Ooh, no, I bet you're a daddy's girl, aren't you? You're out here on this adventure with some lame excuse like 'It'll be fun' or 'Because they wanted me too' or something, right?"

She paused, and then started up again. "I bet that you think you'll be a good trainer one of these days. Don't make me laugh, loser. You'll never be a decent trainer. You won't even be a good trainer! You can't even keep that mutt of yours under control for more than five seconds.”

“So why don't you," Abigail pressed one finger to Peggy’s shoulder and shoved her, gently. "Run on home to Cherrygrove and to daddy and mama before you get hurt out here, amateur, and let us big girls take care of things."

Abigail was being kind of blunt, but… surely she didn’t mean to. She was probably just a little too honest for her own good: nothing a few etiquette classes couldn’t solve. And she clearly meant well, right? She was trying to spur Peggy on to being a great trainer and proving her wrong, right?

It was obvious that that was what she was doing. Melody had seen it a hundred times in her novels. But…

It was terrible, and Melody couldn’t help but feel guilty about it, but she was a little glad that Abigail hadn’t reacted well to Peggy’s suggestion. After all, if Abigail had decided that she liked Peggy more than she liked Melody, then…

Well, Melody didn’t know what she’d do. Or rather, she knew exactly what she would do, and just didn’t want to admit it to herself.

Her knife felt like it was burning a hole through her pocket, and she resisted the urge to touch it.

She’d never show that ugly side of her to Abigail. Never.

And then the short guy who’d gotten distracted by something wandered up, and as soon as he opened his mouth, Melody immediately came to the conclusion that she didn’t like him. At all.

She forgot all about any resentment that she’d been feeling towards Peggy. This guy was a hundred times worse.

"Hey guys, what the hell happened to all of you, you look terrible!” said Alex. Then he turned to Abigail. “Except for you, I love your new hairstyle. I think it really fits your inner self.”

Melody’s eyes widened. What had he said? How dare he say something like that to Abigail? That was clearly out of line.

“I don’t know what happened to all of you,” Alex continued. “But I know for certain that we should head to Cherrygrove. It's much closer and I dont want to be in the caves when night falls. Elm told us to go to Cherrygrove, so lets listen to the man who has years of experience, alright?"

He turned away, striding forward to the front of the group. "Ooh, and who ever was responsible for this whole mess you guys were in, I think you should appologise to the entire group cause it were your actions who put them all in danger. Alright?"

Melody clenched her fists, and then forcefully relaxed them. She didn’t like this boy. She wanted to make him regret what he’d said to Abigail. How dare he? How dare he?

No. No, no, Melody, calm down. She couldn’t show how angry she was. She had to stay composed. She couldn’t let Abigail see that she was feeling such ugly emotions.

But that boy insulted her, whispered a small, wicked part of her. Shouldn’t she be happy that Melody was defending her? Shouldn’t she want to see this boy suffer like Melody could make him suffer?

Melody shook it off. She’d make Alex regret what he’d said later.

“Excuse me,” she said, cutting in. Her expression was perfectly neutral, and her voice was as friendly and polite as usual, but she gave Alex a pointed look. “There’s no need for any of us to fight, or to apologize for what happened. The Spinarak incident was no one’s fault. If your Pokemon or a Pokemon that you're about to catch runs off into the woods, then obviously you’ll chase after it, right? I mean… didn’t you do the exact same thing, Alex? The only difference is that none of us chased after you.”

She sighed, and pasted a smile on her face. “And about where we’re going… like I said, we should just vote on it. We’re perfectly reasonable people, aren’t we? Right now, the vote is three in favor of Blackthorn and two in favor of Cherrygrove. If more of us want to go to Blackthorn as opposed to Cherrygrove, then that’s where we should go, and vice versa. That way, we’ll settle everything nicely.”

She wanted to hurt Alex. But she’d do nothing for now.

Just as Peggy was starting to regret deciding to speak up in front of everyone, Melody gave her own suggestion. “Why don’t we do a vote then?” she offered in a cheerful fashion.“That way everyone gets a say. But you can abstain if you want. It’s pretty obvious that Abigail and Avery are voting for Blackthorn, and Peggy’s voting for Cherrygrove, right? I guess I’ll throw my vote in for Blackthorn, myself. I do want that Zubat, after all, and I don’t think we can get one on the way to Cherrygrove.” Well, that seemed pretty reasonable, Peggy had to admit, and she was able to relax slightly. A vote. That was a pretty civil way to deal with things, wasn't it? That way it wasn't a single person deciding their destination, but the majority.

Peggy's mood, however, took a spiral descent downwards once Abigail burst out laughing."Wow, okay, that is the lamest excuse I've ever heard," the purple-haired girl said. She walked up to Peggy and crouched down so they eye-level with one another, and Peggy felt her own body suddenly tense as if it were preparing for a fight, though Abigail's only weapons here were her words. "So, what, are you a little mama's girl or something? Ooh, no, I bet you're a daddy's girl, aren't you?" Peggy felt herself flinch slightly at that last bit, but Abigail wasn't done. "You're out here on this adventure with some lame excuse like 'It'll be fun' or 'Because they wanted me too' or something, right? I bet that you think you'll be a good trainer one of these days. Don't make me laugh, loser. You'll never be a decent trainer. You won't even be a good trainer! You can't even keep that mutt of yours under control for more than five seconds." Beside Peggy, Jasper gave a little growl, but didn't make any move to attack Abigail.

Abigail pressed a finger onto Peggy's shoulder and giving her a little shove. "So why don't you run on home to Cherrygrove and to daddy and mama before you get hurt out here, amateur, and let us big girls take care of things."

And then, without a second thought, Peggy became deaf to her other teammates' words - even Alex, which was unfortunate considering he seemed to be on her side - and, in most likely some instinctual reflex, Peggy made a swipe with her right hand at Abigail's face, connecting to the other girl's cheek with a loud 'smack'!

She hadn't planned to do it. Peggy didn't even think she possessed the ability to harm another person - violence was just not in her nature, and she usually did all she could to avoid it - but she'd done it.

Because like everyone else, Peggy had her limits.

Jackson Grey

Jackson noticed how everyone seemed to be exceptionally surprised by his return. He had only been gone for twenty to thirty minutes, right? He couldn't wait to show them his new addition, Growlithe was one of his favorite pokemon. To be fair though, Jack loved most pokemon, except for a couple bug types... He didn't like bugs... Speaking of those small fiends, it seems that the group had gotten in a scuffle with a group of spinoarks! On the inside he was actually quite relieved, like he said, bugs gave him the shivers.

According to Melody, Abagail had performed admirably during the fight. But Jack judged by the way Melody was looking at Abagail in an almost obsessive way, there was something going on between them. Now he had nothing against lesbians of course, it was 2015, gay pride right? He just found it inked that Abagail seemed to not be interested. Maybe Melody was like, Abagail's bitch or something.

Jackson felt bad for Peggy, in all seriousness. The poor girl could barely say a few words without stuttering. He didn't really understand how socializing could be so difficult for one person. Jackson loved to talk, talking allowed him to learn about people and people were interesting. Speaking of interesting, there seemed to be some tension among the group. It all seemed to be based around whether or not they should go to Blackthorn City or Cherrygrove. Abagail did not seem happy about Peggy's objection. For a second, Jackson thought the purple-haired girl was going to attack Peggy. Instead Abagail proceeded to insult the hell out of Peggy, which was completely uncalled for.

Her true colors had just need revealed, Abagail was a bitch, at least in Jack's eyes she was. "Hey!" The teen snapped, eyes glaring at Abagail. "There was no need to be that rude to Peggy. We can take a vote and be mature can't we? Instead of insulting each other like 5 year olds. You aren't a five year old are you? Abagail." Jackson crossed his arms, then Alex spoke up. Although it was the first time Jackson had heard Alex talk, he already knew he liked the guy. "I vote for Cherrygrove too. It seems more logical, and I'm quite tired to be honest and there's only a few hours of sunlight left." After stating his opinion, he followed Alex. "We'll eventually get to go to every place hopefully, so there no rush to go to further places. Soooo, that makes it a tie. Even though the Professor said we should go to Cherrygrove anyways"

Jackson decided his pokemon had had a long enough rest, Tiger and Fang should both be duly healed by now. He gripped his two pokeball a and tossed them into the air. Out came Tiger and Fang, the dynamic duo. Fang found his usual perch on Jackson's head and Tiger seemed content with walking beside his partner. Jackson realized how lucky he was, he had two pokemon with opposite types. They could cover each other's weaknesses. Jack grinned, he really did love pokemon.

Then, shit seemed to have hit the fan.

SMACK

Oh shit, Peggy had a mean right-handed slap. Jackson whirled around, knowing that Abagail was sure to retaliate. Ah! The perfect time for a song!

Jackson pulled out his ukulele, and began strumming an upbeat tune. The words rang out in the background, as if it were a theme song for the situation.

"What is this feeling, that's put you in your place
A red hot burning on the side, of your face
The blood rushes to your cheeks, tears start to fill your eyes
Your lips are trembling but you can speak
Cuz you're trying, oh you're not to cryyyyy

You just got slapped
Oh oh
Across the face my friend
Oh oh
You just got slapped
That really just happened
Oh oh

Everybody saw it
And everybody laughed and clapped
It was awesome
The way you just got slapped!"

Jackson finished with a laugh.

Blake shot a glance at the retreating spider pokemon and sighed, "I have a feeling this won't end good..." he said while panting for air. While he was taking a moment to catch his breath, he looked at the others. Melody had, as always, started talking to Abigail about something he would probably find boring.

Then, Abigail again brought up the topic of their first destination, still insisting on her previous choice of Blackthorn. Some people never learn... Blake thought as he watched everyone else slowly voice their own opinions on the matter. Avery, being the Avery he was, probably just went with whatever the others wanted so Blake didn't really blame him for his choice. Peggy on the other hand though, pleasantly supriced Blake. Until then, he had been sure she wasn't one that would be able to voice her opinion on important matters but there she was now, going against the others and voting for Cherrygrove. A silence followed Peggy's little speech that was soon broken by the return of the boy that had picked the Totodile, back at Elm's lab. Blake waved at him, He seems like he's cool, unlike someone else... he thought. Fortunatelly, he had regained his calm pretty fast after that little incident back at the lab but that didn't mean that he had forgotten about it.

He watched as Melody brought up to date their returning friend and then proceeded to reply to Peggy.

"Why don’t we do a vote then? That way everyone gets a say. But you can abstain if you want. It’s pretty obvious that Abigail and Avery are voting for Blackthorn, and Peggy’s voting for Cherrygrove, right? I guess I’ll throw my vote in for Blackthorn, myself. I do want that Zubat, after all, and I don’t think we can get one on the way to Cherrygrove."

So it was 3 to 1 for Blackthorn. The odds kept getting worse and worse, If this continues, I'll have to try and guide this bunch through a cave I have little to no knowledge of. That is unless we would be so god-damn lucky and find some kind of guide around the entrance... Blake thought, slightly annoyed.

Then, all of a sudden, Abigail let out the most annoying laugh Blake had heard in his life. It felt like Weavile were slashing at his ears with their claws and he could do nothing about it. After she finished clawing at his ears with her voice, she approached Peggy and proceeded to unleash a metric butt-ton of insults at her, even going as far as shoving her. All the while, the poor girl just stood there and just listened to Abigail's little outburst. With every insult, Blake was getting more and more angry with Abigail. Alex jumped in, defending her choice and even throwing a stealthy insult at Abigail about her new hairstyle, that made Blake chuckle a little, before he voted against them heading to Blackthorn. Melody started blabbering her usual stuff, always taking her little queen's side.

What happened after that was something that made Blake appreciate Peggy even more. Without prior notice and while Abigail was just finishing her insult-filled speech, Peggy raised her hand and swiped it across Abigail's face, slapping the lights out of her. That right there, was comedy gold. Blake just fell down on the ground, laughing his ass off. Since he first met Abigail, the thing he so desperately wanted to do, Peggy just up and stole it from him. And the funny thing was, he didn't care! That slap was golden, "HA..ha..You..hahaha...Peggy, you...I JUST CAN'T!" he exclaimed and started laughing once again.

Right at that moment, the totodile boy, who had said his name was Jackson, pulled out from nowhere a guitar-shaped instrument and started singing a song, adding a whole other level to the comedy factor of the whole thing."Stophahaha..I'm goinghahahahahahahahaha..toahaha. I'm going to die!"

~Melody Hemlock~

Peggy’s hand whipped across Abigail’s face with a resounding slap. Melody froze, wide-eyed.

That asshole musician guy started singing a nasty little ditty. Swinub-boy started laughing hysterically.

And all Melody could feel was anger.

No. That was wrong. It was more than that.

She’d never really had friends before. She’d spent most of her life transferring from school to school as her parents went from one promotion to the next. When had she ever had time to build a lasting relationship? She didn’t know how to have friends.

So when they’d started out on this whole Pokemon journey thing, a happy little group of eight, she’d… she’d thought that maybe they could all get along.

She’d thought wrong, clearly.

Jackson’s singing and Blake’s laughter rang in her ears. They… they were all on Abigail’s case because she’d been being mean, but… they were being just as awful, weren’t they?

Deep down, Melody knew Abigail wasn’t being a particularly nice girl. And… it wasn’t like she liked the things that Abigail was saying, no matter how grateful she’d been about Abigail not preferring Peggy to her.

She’d been so lonely before she'd become a trainer. It was odd, really, how alone you could feel even when you were surrounded by people. But Melody had never known those people. She’d always been the new kid, who’d be gone within a few month’s time anyway. Who would bother with her?

But Abigail had given her directions even though she’d been a total stranger at that point. Abigail had said that they’d look out for each other. She and Abigail were a team.

How could she not want to help Abigail achieve her dream? She didn’t mind the fact that Abigail was probably using her. Who was she, if not someone who could stand by Abigail, and help her, and protect her?

So maybe none of these people were going to be her friends. She hated Jackson and Alex already. Peggy, she’d thought, could have been her friend…. But clearly not. Melody could never be friends with someone who’d hurt Abigail.

And she'd make them pay for what they were doing later. But… not now. Not in front of Abigail.

And then Avery, clearly misinterpreting the situation, jumped in to embrace both Abigial and Peggy. “Aww… GROUP HUG~!”

"G-get off!" snapped Abigail. She was blushing, but… she didn’t look too unhappy. So Avery had managed to defuse the situation? Wow. Melody really did like that boy. ”Arceus Avery, warn me next time when you're going to go touching people! Some of us don't...don't like...uhm...the whole...touching thing."

She turned back to Peggy. "You know," she continued. "I'm not going to waste my time on someone with such hideous taste in clothes. I mean really, green? That is the most disgusting color in the history of mankind. I think you'd actually look better in...maybe a bright red? Perhaps a blue or a yellow."

That was fashion advice… and actually very true. Melody thought that Peggy really would look better in blue.

But she didn’t care about Peggy anymore. Peggy wasn’t someone who Melody could be friends with anymore.

She felt a pang of sadness that she brushed off hurriedly, and jogged off to catch up to Abigail, who was walking off. She didn't even give the rest of the group a backwards glance. They weren't worth her time… except Avery, maybe. And she didn't know much about Ryley either.

Awkwardly, she wrapped Abigail in a quick hug, but let go fairly soon. Abigail had said that she didn’t like physical contact, right?

“Um,” she said, mumbling in the exact way that her mother had always scolded her about. She didn’t want the others to hear her, but she wanted to make Abigail feel better, anyway. “Abigail… they’re all idiots. You know that, right? Your suggestion was just as good as theirs, and they had no right to act the way they did. But, uh… I’ll always be your friend. And I’m always on your side. Okay?”

She smiled self-consciously. It didn’t matter if the rest of them didn’t like her. It didn’t matter if the rest of them thought she was nothing but a follower, always trailing after Abigail.

As long as she had Abigail… as long as she had her best friend, she could do anything.

~Ryley Grisdoe~

It didn’t take long for Ryley to outrun the spider pokemon. Having too many legs can slow you down apparently. Once they were out of sight, he slowed down a bit, realizing he did kinda leave the others behind. They were the reason he ventured after them in the first place, but those spiders…

Thankfully, the unpleasant thoughts of spiders were interrupted by the rest of the group running away. From more spiders… Well, it was time for another fun run through the forest of spiders. Luckily it was lot shorter than his previous run, as they escaped onto the route fairly quickly. Now the group was back in one piece.

That was one way to start off their journey!

The topic of where the group was headed continued as it had before the pokemon catching spree. Melody, Abigail, and Avery had voted to go north towards Blackthorn. That left five votes to be tallied, with the re-appearance of the musician. Peggy brought up the original idea of going to Cherrygrove. Then everything escalated yet again. Abigail laughed at Peggy’s desire to meet up with family, and proceeded to verbally slap her back and forth. It felt as though she was being cruel just for cruelty’s sake, but she was probably being honest with herself. That was worse in some cases.

Adding fuel to the fire came Alex with a series of small verbal jabs at Abigail. Melody tried to mitigate the situation, but it was too late. In retort to Abigail’s verbal slapping, Peggy had literally slapped back. Violence should be avoided, but that… that was fairly justified. Even so, it shocked Ryley to see the nervous Peggy respond like that. He was sure the rest of the group, even Peggy herself, felt similarly. Though from there, the group responded a bit differently.

Mr. Music started off by playing a song about the slap. And slapping in general. Weird.

Blake responded in a huge fit of laughter to the slap, then the song. Laughter only made things worse, but Ryley could see why Blake found the situation hilarious.

Lastly, Avery completely misinterpreted everything and gave Peggy and Abigail a ‘GROUP HUG’. This, along with Abigail’s stammering to the hug, not the slap, managed to earn a small chuckle from Ryley. Somehow Avery had helped defuse the situation immensely. Perhaps everyone needed a bit of airheadedness in their lives.

After the hug and song had finished, Abigail spat one more insult to Peggy, but followed up with what could be seen as an apology. Everyone did have a conscience after all. Well, except for the sociopaths, but that’s a different story.

Things seemed to settle down as Abigail walked off wearily, Melody following with a glance towards the group. Despite the calm, it felt as though the group had split apart. That needed to be fixed.

“How about we make camp soon guys?” Having the group settle down would be really helpful towards mending bridges. “I don’t know about you guys, but a bit of rest sounds amazing”.

With that single slap, chaos broke lose from the rest of the group, and Peggy, currently seeming to be in a state of shock from what she had just done, just watched blankly as the madness unfolded.

Jackson pulled out a guitar-like instrument and started playing a mocking song, unmistakably directed at Abigail, and Blake was now in hysterics. Avery, with a shout of “Aww… GROUP HUG~!”, gathered both Peggy and Abigail in a warm, friendly embrace, and Peggy could only imagine he was trying to act peacekeeper. Her body tensed at the contact. She got hugs from her mother often, as Erica seemed to need some reassurance throughout the day that Peggy was not only safe, but still loved and appreciated her as a mother. However, Peggy hadn't been hugged by a guy for over a year now, since her grandfather had died, it made her feel uncomfortable.

She apparently wasn't the only one.

"G-get off!" snapped Abigail. Peggy could see that she blushing as she tried to pull away from the boy. Seemed like she and Abigail ahd at least one thing in common. ”Arceus Avery, warn me next time when you're going to go touching people! Some of us don't...don't like...uhm...the whole...touching thing." After getting free of Avery's hug, Abigail turned back to Peggy. "You know," she continued. "I'm not going to waste my time on someone with such hideous taste in clothes." The words stung a little, but no where near as much as Abigail's earlier comments about Peggy's family. "I mean really, green? That is the most disgusting color in the history of mankind. I think you'd actually look better in...maybe a bright red? Perhaps a blue or a yellow." Peggy didn't say anything in return and simply watched as Abigail walked off a little away from the rest of them. Was she mad? Upset? It seemed like she might be. Melody followed soon after, and Peggy was left there, being awkwardly hugged by Avery. After a moment, Peggy pulled away from Avery's hug, feeling the shock starting to wear off a little and give way to sensations of guilt and shame.

Why had she done that? Peggy hugged hers arms to her chest, looking down at her shoes. Yes, what Abigail had said was mean, but was hitting her really the best response? She should have just sucked it up and remained silent and unmoving, should have just taken it. At worst, she should have attempted some kind of retort, not too hurtful but snappy enough. But no, Peggy'd gone and overreacted.

Big surprise.

While Peggy was moping, Jasper had been watching her trainer with half-interested expression, but seemed to be getting bored now that Peggy had gone all mopey on her and turned her attention to some leaves blowing past, carried by a gentle breeze, and went after them, batting and swiping at them with her paws in a manner that partly playful, yet partly aggressive.

Now that the chaos was slowly started to die down, Ryley, clearly the most mature of the group, stepped forward. “How about we make camp soon guys? I don’t know about you guys, but a bit of rest sounds amazing”.

Peggy didn't respond, didn't feel she had the right to speak at the moment after how she had behaved and simply shifted her weight awkwardly from foot to foot.

-Alexander Elric-

Well... This was different.

So, to recap what had just happened: Abigail was verbally attacking Peggy, Peggy retaliates with a slap. In response Jackson starts to ridicule Abigail with a song and Blake starts laughing his ass off about the whole occurance. And to top it all off the airhead Avery, who was completely oblivious to everything, difuses the situation with a hug...

What!?

Riley came up with the briliant idea of setting up camp. Finally someone that made sense! Alex looked over at the rest of the group. Abigail and Peggy both didnt look so good. No wonder, Peggy is as introverted as can be and was the center of all the attention just now, ofcourse she's not doing so well now. And Abigail... As much as he might dislike her, she was being picked on by everyone right now. No one deserves that, not even Abigail. The sun was setting and Alex was thinking about where to set up camp.

But first he had something to make clear to the group...

Alex walked up to Blake who was still rolling around on the ground laughing at what just happened. Alex gave a "gentle" kick to Blakes head. "Get up idiot! Stop making a fool out of yourself!" He turned around to face Jackson. "And you, do you think this is the right time for a song?" Alex faced the rest of the group. "Are you all insane? Nightfall is close, we should be setting up camp and all we are doing is squabling amongst ourselves or rediculing members of our group. Is this how we are going to act from now on?" He looked at Jackson and Blake, then at Abigail.

"Yes, we might not all agree with one another and yes, some people might have left a bad first impression. But does that really mean we should already shun them? Already mock them?" Alex walked up to Abigail. "I'm sorry for my comment about your hair earlier, it was uncalled for." He looked over at Peggy and then back at Abigail. "And I think you realise that what you said to Peggy was uncalled for aswell so please, for the sake of the group, would you want to appologise about earlier to her? Maybe she would then appologise to you aswell." He smiled at Abigail, hoping that it would convince her... And Eevee bumped with his little head against Abigail, trying to push her towards Peggy.

~Melody Hemlock~

“Friend? Don’t make me laugh.” Abigail snapped. “I don’t know why you’re being so friendly, Melody, but I’m not an idiot. I’m not really a nice person, I get that, and I really don’t care. Those morons can all get eaten by a wild Mightyena for all I care.” She stopped and turned to face Melody.

“So. Why are you being so nice to me, hmm? Not like we’re friends. We’ve known each other for barely even half of a day. So why--” she sighed, and put her purse on the ground. “--don't you leave me alone.”

Melody blinked. “Why am I… really being nice to you?” she echoed, caught off guard.

Well, okay. She wasn’t kidding herself: Abigail probably didn’t consider Melody a friend. But that was okay, wasn’t it? All Melody wanted was to be able to stand by the other girl’s side, and help her achieve her dreams. She just wanted a best friend: was that really so wrong?

“Well, uh… I guess you could say that… no one’s ever, you know, helped me out for no reason before,” she said honestly. It was true: most of the time, when someone was being nice to her, it was because they wanted to win brownie points with her parents. But Abigail had helped her without even knowing her name. “And… I admire you? You helped me when I was lost and couldn't read my map, and you were nice to me when your Nidoran attacked Tesla.”

She hesitated, embarrassed despite herself, and then forged on. “I don’t expect you to be nice to me, or even to consider me your friend! But to me, you’re, uh… I consider you my friend, and… I want to help you! I want to help you become the best trainer in the region. Wait, no! I want to help you become the best trainer in the whole world!”

Oh Arceus, oh Arceus, what was she saying?! She hadn’t meant to be so honest…

Melody covered her face in her hands to hide the pinkness in her cheeks, and said awkwardly, “And… that’s all. I, uh. Yeah. I’m going to just… put my stuff down. Be back soon.”

She started shuffling off, and just in time, too. Alex was striding up to Abigail, and it looked like he meant business. She tensed.

"I'm sorry for my comment about your hair earlier, it was uncalled for,” he said. “And I think you realise that what you said to Peggy was uncalled for aswell so please, for the sake of the group, would you want to appologise about earlier to her? Maybe she would then appologise to you swell."

Or maybe he didn’t mean business. Maybe there was hope for them after all? Alex’s apology certainly went far in easing Melody’s as-of-yet-suppressed anger towards him, but… she still didn’t feel like talking to him, or Peggy and Blake and Jackson.

Still, she actually felt a lot better now. Much less… murderous.

Melody kept walking, determined to find somewhere that she could put her stuff down and hide her embarrassment from Abigail for a little while. She therefore completely missed Abigail’s retort.

And then the ground shook, a brief tremor nearly knocking her to the ground. An earthquake?

She heard a loud noise overhead. Melody stopped, and looked up. There was a swarm of… were those Zubats? And they were flying right over the main path, too. Melody hadn't even taken a step off the road.

But… that didn’t make any sense. You couldn’t find Zubats on Route 29, everyone knew that!

She wasn’t going to look a gift Ponyta in the mouth, though. Melody fumbled in her pocket for Tesla’s pokeball and summoned him in a flash of red light. “Tesla, get one of them with a Thunder Wave!” she whispered. “Just one. Quick!”

Tesla gave her a look that said he didn’t need to be told twice. It looked like his dislike of flying types extended to Zubats as well. The flash of his Thunder Wave lit up the darkening sky, and one of the Zubats gave a harsh squawk as it plummeted to the ground.

“Now, tackle it!” she said, and off Tesla went. The Zubat went in to bite him for a Leech Life, but that didn’t stop Tesla, who tackled it right in the mouth.

Ouch. That had to hurt.

Melody didn’t waste a second. She threw the pokeball, hitting the Zubat square on the head. It screeched as it was sucked inside.

The pokeball quivered. Once… twice… three times! And then it clicked shut, and Melody hurried over to pick it up.

She’d… she’d caught her first Pokemon! Okay, granted, it was a Zubat (a Pokemon that she honestly didn't like too much, and had only sort of wanted in order to impress Abigail), and Tesla had done most of the work, but...

“Great job, Tesla!” she said, bending down to pat the Mareep on the head. But Tesla didn’t seem very pleased.

In fact, he seemed downright agitated, butting her gently on the shin. He baa’d urgently.

Melody looked up… and found herself face to face with an enormous, battle-scarred Onix. It was blocking off the path to Blackthorn with its stony body, and it looked hungry.

And of course, it was looking right at her.

So that was why the Zubats had been flying away. They must have been scared out of the cave by this Onix, she dimly registered. Melody took a step backwards.

"Um, guys?" she said, trying to mask her fear. "I… I think we have a situation."

Jackson Grey

Jackson was kind of disappointed. Fights in general were entertaining to watch, especially cat fights. Although in retrospect this whole thing was kind of messed up. Why couldn't people just get along? Being rude just lead to problems, gaurenteed.

Jack sighed and put away his instrument. Tiger nudged him and Fang seemed like he was trying to tell him something. Was something wrong? Was there some sort of threat? Jackson dismissed that idea to switch his attention to his group. Alex seemed to be agitated, that guy had no chill.

At least his was trying to calm the feud between most of the group. When he asked Jackson why he thought playing a song was appropriate Jack raised an eyebrow. "It's just a song and Abagail seems to have taken zero offense." Them Riley piped in about making camp. "I like that idea, me and my guys are pretty tired. We should stop soon."

The earth underneath Jackson's shoes shook, what the hell? Earthquakes don't just happen, what had caused that shockwave? Tiger nipped Jack in finger. Something was definitely wrong. Melody then squeaked out, "um guys, we have a problem."

Upon seeing the threat, Jackson jumped into action. What were rock-types' weaknesses? Water and grass right? Perfect. "Fang, you're up!" The little blue croc jumped off of his trainer's head to face his opponent. "Right, use water gun!" The Totodile followed Jack's command and shot a dozen or so spheres of water from his mouth. The Onix didn't seem to be very agile, and the move connected. It caused it to back up, and it probably did some sort of damage, but it wasn't stopping. "I don't think we can beat it guys... Even water type moves aren't doing much..."

The Onix whipped its tail at Fang, who was distracting it from attacking Melody. "Melody get out if there!" He shouted. Meanwhile Fang was flung into the air from the force of the Onix's tail hitting the ground.

~Melody Hemlock~

Melody stared up at the Onix’s feral eyes. It was close enough that she could feel its hot breath against her face. Her legs felt like jelly. She was supposed to run, wasn't she? But what good would it do? All it would take was one snap of the Onix's jaws, and--

So this is how I’m going to die, she thought, frozen to the spot. It wasn’t a bad way to go. At least she’d finally met her best friend, right?

"Melody, get out of there!" Jackson’s voice.

And then a blast of water hit the Onix in the side of the head.

The creature roared, swinging its enormous tail in fury, but the move didn’t seem to do much damage, serving only to distract it while Abigail’s new Spinarak pelted the massive rock snake with webbing. It hadn’t slowed the Onix down very much, but…

This was her opportunity to run!

Or at least, it would have been, had Tesla not decided to charge forth and tackle the Onix while it was busy slamming Abigail’s unfortunate Spinarak against a tree.

“Damn it, Tesla!” Melody gasped, and ran forwards, spurred into action by her fear for her Pokemon's safety. She didn't even think twice.

She was running towards a gigantic, rampaging Onix. What in Arceus’s name was she doing? But she wouldn’t let Tesla get killed by this thing. She wouldn’t.

Tesla’s tackle had done… not much at all, really, but at least he’d tried. Melody scooped him up in her arms just in time for the Onix to swing around, slamming its tail into the ground beside her. She scrambled backwards, and tripped, rolling over just in time to shield Tesla from the impact.

She was going to die. She was really, genuinely going to die.

Tesla growled, squirming in her arms.

He still wanted to fight, she realized, with a dawning mixture of horror and pride. And Melody had to fight too. Abigail had saved her, after all! She tightened her grip on him and pushed herself off the ground, stumbling backwards and rejoining the other trainers.

"Shh, Tesla," she whispered urgently. "You can't beat him! Onix is a rock-ground dual type, and look how strong it is!"

Tesla hissed, clearly dissatisfied, but lapsed into sullen silence. Melody gave Abigail a bright, grateful smile. Melody had known Abigail was a good person at heart. Then, after a split second's hesitation, she turned the same smile on Jackson. He'd been a big part of helping her get away too, after all.

"You guys saved me!" she said, bashfully. "Thanks a lot. I really mean it."

But now wasn't the time for gratitude, and Melody fumbled for her new Zubat's pokeball. It emerged in a flurry of red light and wings, screeching wildly and still clearly paralyzed. Tesla gave it a menacing look --seriously, how was it that a fluffy little Mareep could be so intimidating?-- and it immediately quieted down.

"Okay, here's the deal," she told it quickly. "We're friends now, whether you like it or not. I'm going to heal you up, and then you're gonna help us distract this Onix while we make our escape. Mess up and we all die, so don't, okay?"

The Zubat cawed rebelliously, but it wasn't doing anything else, so Melody took that to be a good sign. She smiled. "Great. Now, what you're going to do is this: flap around and be a distraction, yeah? Throw in a Leech Life if you can afford it, but avoid its head and tail. Especially the head. Got it?"

Zubat cawed again, and Melody giggled. One potion and a Paralyze Heal later, and he was all patched up and ready to go. "Alright, you can do it! Go!"

And then Zubat was in the air, cawing wildly and drawing the Onix's attention. Tesla made an angry noise, clearly not happy with being left out of the action, and Melody sighed. Why was he so eager to fight all of a sudden?

"You can help too," she said. "Just stick with me, okay?"

The Onix started hurling mud all over the place. Mud sport? Ew. And that was going to weaken Tesla, too... though it wasn't like his attacks would have done anything in the first place. Ground types were immune to electric attacks, after all. Zubat swooped up to attempt to avoid the flying mud: perfect.

“Thunder Wave on the eyes!” she said, putting the Mareep on the ground, and Tesla let loose with a wave of electricity that Zubat was thankfully out of the way of. The electricity did absolutely nothing, but the Onix reeled back in shock anyway.

Don’t see too many electric types around here, huh? Melody thought maliciously. “Leech life!” she yelled, and down Zubat swooped, latching on to the Onix’s rocky skin.

The Onix roared in annoyance, Zubat’s attack clearly not really doing much but pester it a little, and Melody clenched her fists in irritation. It tossed its head and Zubat went flying off, only just managing to catch itself before it hit a tree.

“We’ve gotta run!” Melody said, tugging nervously at her skirt. “There’s no way we’re beating this thing. Let’s go!”

It seemed that Arceus, or whatever being governed fate, had decided to use Peggy as its chew toy, because just as Peggy was standing there, feeling sorry for herself and thinking that this day could not get any worse...

... well, let's just say that things got worse.

"Um, guys? I… I think we have a situation," Melody called.

Numbly, Peggy raised her head just a huge Onix emerged from a nearby cave, causing several Zubat to flee in its wake. And currently, said Onix was bearing down on Melody, looking as if it was ready to eat her.

Resisting the instinct to run and leave all her teammates behind, Peggy called for her Pokemon. "J-jasper!" she shouted. Peggy searched frantically for the Houndour, and when she finally laid eyes upon her, she was surprised to see Jasper only a couple of feet away... just standing there, staring at the Onix with wide-eyes. "Jasper!" Peggy went over to the Houndour's side. She had expected the little dog to go charging at Onix, lunging and biting, but it appeared that the dog Pokemon was instead frozen in fear, even going so far as to let out a little whimper.

'Really?' Peggy thought. 'Of all the times you had to lose your nerve, you decided to do that now?' She might have been angry with the dog, shouted at it, had her fear not been more powerful.

Thankfully, both Jackson and Abigail went to Melody's rescue, though while the Onix was distracted from its first target, it seemed to have only been irritated rather than weakened. Melody's Mareep then tried to fight the Onix, charging it in the way she had expected Jasper to. Of course, being an Electric-type, it did absolutely nothing and Melody had to come to its rescue. Peggy then watched as Melody directed both Tesla and a Zubat, that she must have caught when Peggy wasn't paying attention, at the Onix, even so much as having Tesla use a Thunder Wave on the Onix's eyes. Peggy couldn't help but flinch at that.

Eventually, however, Melody must have realised she was fighting a losing battle because she called out to the rest of the group, “We’ve gotta run! There’s no way we’re beating this thing. Let’s go!”

Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

"Come on, Jasper!" Peggy said to her Pokemon. "Let's get out of here!" Just as she was about to move away, though, she noticed that Jasper was not following. "Jasper!" When the dog wouldn't respond, Peggy got out her Pokeball and recalled Jasper back to her capsule before pocketing it. "L-let's go!" Peggy called to the others, getting ready to run at any moment.

~Ryley Grisdoe~

Ryley hadn’t been lying before. A bit of rest after today’s antics sounded real nice right about now. It seemed as though most of the group agreed, non-verbally, but it was fairly noticeable in their postures. Unfortunately, things were still settling down, not quite at peace yet.

Alex lashed out at the group for their ‘squabbling’, as well as the general mocking of Abigail. To be fair, that was mostly Blake and Mr. Music. And Alex earlier, but he did apologize to Abigail, so that kinda made up for it. He also prompted her to apologize to Peggy as well. Like that was going to happen outright, but it was worth an effort.

Abigail responded as Ryley thought, adding the point that Peggy didn’t need to apologize for the slap. She added something about ‘toughening up’, but Ryley thought she almost sounded weary. As if to back this up, Abigail suggested setting up camp, just as Ryley had moments ago. Maybe now they could settle down and rest.

Those thoughts didn’t even get to last a minute. Melody captured a zubat, which must have been nice for her, but that wasn’t the problem. The freaking giant rock snake seemed to be more troubling. Ryley could swear he saw the setting sun flip him the bird. How that’s possible, he hadn’t a clue. Well screw you too nature.

After a super effective attack from a water gun was brushed off easily by the beast, the general consensus amongst the group was simple enough. RUN. Retreating while holding off the Onix was a bit awkward, but nothing too hard. Melody’s newly caught Zubat was peppering the Onix with aerial attacks, Abigail’s Spinarak was shooting web, but had taken a hit. Avery was trying to play fetch with the rock type. Wait...

...Yep. Definitely fetch.

Well, in any case, he could help out too with the help of Fern. If she knew razor leaf, that would be amazing. If only, unfortunately. Time for plan B. He sent out Fern, and quickly told her his plan. It was simple enough, so it didn’t take long to explain. With a nod from the Chikorita, he recalled her to the pokeball and set about his plan.

He sent out Fern a distance away from him, closer to the Onix. As soon as she was released, she unleashed the most furious attack ever known. Growl.

...Hey, it was either that or tackle, and Ryley didn’t want to have Fern get squashed by the beast.

Back to the plan, Ryley recalled Fern as soon as the Growl went through. He then sent out Fern again, this time on the Onix’s other side. Another Growl, and another recall. It might not be much, but it did seem to distract the Onix a bit, the surrounding Growls. All of this happened as the group was retreating. Ryley even shook it up by releasing Fern on nearby branches. Three dimensional Growl attack!

...Ryley swore to never name his strategies again.