"Thank you very much sir." Amelia said to the trainer before he left. She continued deeper into the woods, looking around with the aid of Liwick's flame. As she journeyed deeper, she began sensing a Ghost-type in the distance and, feeling a bit excited, she began heading in that direction a little faster then normal. This, however, resulted in her missing the warning cries of her pokemon and as a result, she ran straight into a Spinarak web. The good news was that it was small, while it was strong, she managed to pass through it with some aid from Litwick's flames. The bad news was that it was still stuck on her face. When she tried to get it off with her hands, the strands simply stuck to those. "Ew. Ew ew ew ew."

@PlatinumSkink

---

The gust slammed into Ralia, knocking the fairy type off balance. Two of her clones dived to the ground, covering their heads in a rather comical fashion. Ralia herself though, managed to keep standing by making a rather acrobatic twirl as her small legs managed to keep her mostly upright. Immediately upon turning around, she fired off another confusion at the Combee. Lucky her, it had hit! It was firing up another gust though, so that was a bit bad-wait.

Another confused status?

Ho man, she must have a higher luck stat then she originally thought she did! Was it simply her beginners luck shining through? Or was her and Ralia just that good? Well, whatever it was, that Combee was already looking pretty wobbly. It probably couldn't take much more and since she was pressed for time...

"Alright, Ralia! Be ready for a growl if the pokeball fails!" For insurance mostly in case Combee managed to get another attack off.

So reaching into her pockets, she grabbed an empty ball and chucked it at Combee as hard as she could. Ralia had already reassembled her clones and was readying a growl should the ball miss or the Combee break free. She took a brief glance over to Delphox, as the pokeball left her hands - just long enough to look at how she was fairing. The beedrill were getting very aggressive and at this rate this might actually turn pretty bad...

Eh, nah. Delphox was strong. She could handle herself.

Claire focused back on the pokeball to see whether it had capture the bee pokemon or not.

Now this fight was getting back into the swing of things with Tangela switching to an all out attack. This was no matter as he knew what to do about it. Martin gave out his new battle plan for Nincada to follow."Nincada, use Harden three more times, then once you maxed out your armor, go in and use Leech Life on Tangela. The damage means nothing anymore. Once you go in, don't stop attacking. Trust in your armor, as it will be far stronger than any demon that opposes us. Nothing will crack you, nothing will stop you, nothing will prevent our victory. Turn even the life of your opponent to your will and make them pay for crossing our path. This fight is already over, you just don't know it yet."

This fight was coming to its last stretch of the fight. He could see it was coming to an end, but how it would finish, was hopes for him to win. Nincada gave a nod, continuing to harden it's shell over and over, taking the vine whips. Each use made them sting less and less, before it was time to go in. Nincada scrambled forward, heading in for payback on that damage. Time to get aggressive on Tangela. As long as he could still hit his opponent, it didn't matter what they did to him. Martin already figured the first Scratch didn't matter anymore so it was going to be a cakewalk as long as Nincada held on until it was time to go on offense.

Ren was thoroughly disturbed as Joshua made his declaration of finding 'the chosen one', shrinking back ever so slightly into her jacket as a means of trying not to draw attention to herself. Unfortunately for her, Joshua wouldn't let that happen regardless of what she wanted, or so it appeared. His hands firmly grasped her shoulders, Ren's face lighting up a vivid and cherry red as he showered her with compliments upon compliments. Shyn, on the other hand, took to the compliments quite well, and gave Joshua a confident wink, before looking back over at Pikachu as though to say "See?".

It took Ewan's warning far too long for Ren to process, and just as she was about to step away, Joshua had returned. He offered a rather nice-looking hairpin, and though Ren was hesitant in taking it, his insistence won her over. She also felt that if she complied with him sooner, the whole ordeal would be over with a lot quicker. Though she felt she had no escape, she couldn't help but feel a little more at-ease after Ewan's explanation, his calmness acting as the perfect medium between his eccentric friend and their emotionally inept comrade. "I-I would like to go, but... I'm a-afraid I may not have the money... A-and I wouldn't want to burden y-you by making you pay... How much are t-tickets?" Gingerly, the young woman took the hairpin offered to her and, with hands shaking and face flushed, set the pin so it pulled her fringe to the side, with the flower resting just above her ear. She'd never really used a hairpin before since she didn't usually maintain long hair, and found that short hair was far less troublesome. It was about the only place the pin could go that was both practical and decent looking, at least in her eyes.

She made sure to pull her hood up some as the surrounding folk began staring...

Time seemed to slow for a moment as Dawkin's eye raced across the tunnels, categorizing and analyzing. He could rile up the wild Pokemon in the first cave, but the Growlithe knew roar so it'd likely be useless. The next tunnel had more water with a few Pokemon skittering around on top of it. The third had more water... And some light source? It could be from a Pokemon, a weird rock, or outside. Or another person. Figuring the left path had the best chance of getting him out of this he continued sprinting forward as time snapped back into normal speed, adrenaline causing his heartbeat to pump loudly, astonishingly audible to himself. Was he sweating? Ugh. Zealous bastar- buggers weren't they? Dawkin released both Pokemon slightly ahead of himself. "Watergun and Mudslap towards them." He said commandingly. It only take a moment or two for his Pokemon to orient themselves and fire as soon as his chasers came into range, at which point they would be promptly returned again. It occurred to Dawkin that rapidly releasing and returning his Pokemon might have side effects, oh well, he only planned to do that trick once more at most, so it should be fine. Sploosh

@Pyromaniacwolf

‘Veeeen…!’ The Venipede showed obvious agitation at being called disappointing, rolling again to track down Houndour. However, Houndour was simply too good at avoiding the Venipede, and could get out of the way before the rolling bug hit. Instead, Lucian’s Pokéball came flying, and Venipede could not get out of the way in time. The ball hit, and with a red flash the Pokémon entered.

The ball shook pretty furiously for a couple of seconds, the ball shaking back and forth while the other Venipedes were shouting for their comrade. It looked like it could go either way there, for a couple of seconds.



…

The Venipedes blinked with a certain fright and anger combined as their comrade had been captured, before turning around and dashing back up the tree. ‘Ven!’ ‘Venipede!’ ‘Nipede…!’ ‘Veni…!’ ‘Peeeede!’ … With varying cries they scurried up the tree. Lucian was then left to his own devices for five seconds, when suddenly…

BA-BAM!

… The sound of two heavier somethings suddenly fell down from the tree. Two round, grey bugs with eyes on their sides and varying spikes and antennas looked forward at him…

‘Whirl… ipede!?’ Came from within one of them.





The two looked really agitated, glaring forward at Lucian and Houndour. So, the grunts realized they couldn’t handle the situation and went to get the bosses. Or, perhaps these were the parents? Hard to tell at this point.

__________________________

@Pink Madness

Donna had her Pokémon healed, chose a path with water to walk, and went on her way. As she followed the water, which she likely couldn’t do without at least getting her feet and lower legs wet, she could progress relatively unopposed…

Pffth. As if. Welcome to Wet Caverns, says a pack of four Zubats.





Now, these bats would fly about her head stirring her hair with their flaps and otherwise try to get tiny bites in because they’re bats. However, they are, despite this, somewhat manageable if one just treats them as giant mosquitoes. They weren’t actually dangerous, although they wouldn’t leave if they weren’t engaged so they were plenty annoying. It’s possible to travel through Wet Caverns just waving them off occasionally as an average trainer. Still, the four 80 cm tall 7.5 kg bats could be more than a bit unnerving to the inexperienced.

Donna could engage them if she wanted them off her head, wanted to train against them… or perhaps if she wanted one. _{could be quickfought} Otherwise, she could endure and press on.



__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii - Night

Trying to capitalize on their capture, the Spinaraks started crawling forth to shoot further String Shots and Poison Stings at their catch, but Litwick freed Amelia quickly enough that they were able to flee on. As she fled on, she had to cross more vegetation, and soon enough her Litwick could feel more spirits up ahead, though this time perhaps unknowing.

There were bugs on the bushes which were going to be startled by Amelia’s movements, suddenly jerking back into the plants while spreading a black dust behind them…





… Now, perhaps Amelia did not actually have time to hear that rundown due to running, but perhaps she could reason that the black cloud these bugs were spewing in her direction was not to be taken lightly.

It was still quite a bit from where she felt the ghost… At this encounter-rate, would she press on?

__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

Claire threw her Pokéball after having made ready, managing to hit the Combee and it bounced down onto the floor of the woods, starting to shake. Delphox continued lighting the background up in flames as Claire and Ralia focused on the Pokéball.

It shook once.

It shook twice.

It even shook trice. And then…



Meanwhile.

‘…’ Delphox was less than amused by multiple needles being shot at her from Beedrills and other creatures around. She directed her wand in one direction, burning Beedrills and Combees with flamethrowers before they could reach her. As she was now being attacked from more than one direction, she directed her free hand in the other and the Beedrills in that direction suddenly recoiled and were sent flying into trees a bit of everywhere, their minds having taken direct Psychic attacks. Then, it was time for those Vespiquens.

Delphox grinned under her fox-snout, and then jumped and spun her wand in a circle, creating a ring of fire. She directed it at the Vespiquens, which started shuddering away as they realized what was happening. Delphox merely smirked at them before jumping and blowing her Mystical Fire through the ring and burning the Vespiquens a considerable distance away, a straight pillar of fire erupting from the circle blasting forward as a beam at her enemies… (momentarily ignoring that the move is apparently weaker than Flamethrower)

Delphox landed, breathing out, apparently having fainted every single wild Pokémon in this part of the woods, the Deep Woods suddenly looking a lot less busy than it did when Claire first came in here. ‘Del-phox!’ Delphox nodded with finality, apparently satisfied with her battle and with her arms on her sides. … And that’s when one stray Confuse Ray came and hit her from the side, spinning around her while she stood immobile.

‘Phoooo-ooox…!’ Delphox exclaimed as she suddenly started to wobble like a drunk, taking three steps to readjust her balance to then look back at Claire while very unsteady. ‘Del… delphox?’ ”Ya… ya done yet?”

Edit: Despite the clones, Ralia would be unable to dodge the next Gust as well, and due to Gust being a special move Growl didn’t even weaken the blow, but that’s otherwise beside the point as Ralia could take the damage, though it was likely showing now after both hits from Ledyba and Combee now. But, Claire threw another Pokéball to catch the Pokémon. Combee was hit, while struggling to rise up, and the ball fell down, and shook once again…

It shook once.

It shook twice, then thrice.



__________________________

@Pikmin Eye

Tangela kept attacking from a range, the vines cracking down on Nincada with considerable force, but Nincada was hardening over and over, ensuring little damage was being done to him. By the time Nincada was done hardening, Tangela’s vines were practically being reflected when they hit. However, it could be noted that after so many Vine Whips, Nincada had suffered considerable damage already, not much health left. Then Nincada went in for the attack.

Tangela flinched, wide eyed, as Nincada bit into a tentacle with a claw and drained the energy out of it. The energy which was being drained from the earth through Ingrain went directly to Nincada instead, addition to sucking from the source. Panicking from this Super Effective move, hitting Nincada with Vine Whip after Vine Whip. But, Nincada barely took any damage. In fact, he was regaining more health than he was taking damage, stabbing over and over again and draining the energy from Tangela’s tentacles.

It took a while, Lewis shouting to Tangela to keep at it not realizing what was happening. Tangela couldn’t retreat, connected to the ground by Ingrain, yet it wasn’t serving him as Nincada drained more and more of his health. Finally, it was too much, and a practically fully healed Nincada stood solid as Tangela toppled over, tentacles filled with tiny holes through which Nincada had leached his life.

Tangela fainted.





‘KAH!’ Lewis flinched backwards, dramatically like he had taken a physical blow, falling down on one knee looking forward at the Dark Knight who had bested him. He portrayed himself as if he had suffered actual pain pretty well, because the little girl beside him got all worried.

‘B-big brother! A-are you okay!?’ The princess asked with worried eyes, looking from Lewis to Martin. He waved her off.

‘I am okay. I have stood in defense of my kingdom, and I have failed. It is only right that he reaps the rewards.’ Lewis turned his eyes to Martin, his eyes filled with intent. ‘Dark Knight. Perhaps your interests lie solely in the desolation of our kingdom, but we had a quest to offer the victor of the tourney. Far out, in the reaches of the Drainage Kingdom…’ He pointed along the length of the drain… ‘… Walks a rare beast none of us had seen before. We arranged this tourney to examine who had the rights to confront it.’ Lewis claimed.

‘… Then the other random trainers taking part started saying that they were staging an attack on our kingdom and were seeking the princess’ hand, and we had to defend ourselves and things got kind of out of hand…’ Donald the preschooler knight informed from the side with a little grin.

‘Shush.’ Lewis gave Donald a little look before looking back to Martin. ‘In any case. If you may spare our kingdom and the princess, we’ll give you the chance to go after the beast. What say you?’

The choice was given to Martin.

__________________________

@Delta44

Seeing Shyn’s little look, Pikachu mainly looked happy and nodded to the fellow electric type, knowing exactly what kind of feeling that was.

‘Yupp, this guy’s got it.’ Joshua stated seeing Shyn’s wink, and then a bit later looked exceedingly happy when Ren accepted the hairpin and put it just above her ear. ‘… Perfect…!’ He said with a more silent but amazed tone, waving his hands like he was presenting a work of art.



Then came her reply to if she wanted to see the show with them or not. Ewan looked like he was about to answer her question, when Joshua took a step forward and placed a hand on her shoulder with an extremely serious look.

‘I AM PAYING.’ He commanded.

‘… 500 P per adult ticket, 150 P for children under 15.’ Ewan informed. Not that any of them were under 15, for some reason.

‘Let’s go~’ Joshua happily guided Ren to where they’d pay for tickets to join the audience. He wouldn’t pull her, but he’d do everything in his power to imply that he would if she didn’t come along, inviting her all the way. If she made it known that she wanted to pay, Joshua would accept it with a ‘I am not one to refute a female’s wishes~’, but if her excuse to not go was that she didn’t want to pay then HE WAS PAYING AND WASN’T HAVING IT ANY OTHER WAY. And so…

_{(It’s like, if you want an image of an anime stage, there’s Vocaloid, Idolmaster, K-On, some Gundam and AKB0048 to pick from at all if you don’t want to make things a lot more complicated, sooooooooo)}


She was escorted to inside the audience. There was a great stage, with many chairs to sit on, and quite a few people had turned up to watch. The place wasn’t actually filled, but nonetheless, light eventually focused on the stage and an excited announcer started speaking. Notably, right in front of Ren and all other members of the audience, was a panel with a single large button with a heart on it. As the ticket explained, “Press the Heart button whenever you see something you like~!”, because the audience has a huge part in selecting who will win.

‘Each member of the audience has as much power over the final result (at least in the first round).’ Ewan explained. ‘You can press it as much as you like, but the more you press the less each press will mean. Though, if you limit yourself to a single press, then you may find yourself at a loss if you want to support the next contestant half as much as the previous.’

Then the show started. Four Pokémon were performing in the Cute category, by the sheer chance that it was the one that was up next. Meaning it was to be four cute Pokémon that would be competing. This apparently meant…

















… Those four, plus their coordinators. First round was simply putting the Pokémon up for display, where some might have some accessories. The Dedenne was wearing a ribbon and was performing a little strange squeaky but nonetheless cute song. The Piplup was wearing a little scarf and was making little comfortable noises. The Purrloin and the trainer performed some little duo number where the trainer was play-denying the Purrloin access to a ball of yarn, and then the Purrloin made a sad yet very cute plea to the audience and after getting a reaction got the ball of yarn. The Spheal was mostly rolling about looking derpy and making noises while looking so absurdly stupid and perhaps cute.

Then, after the appraisal, they did some moves which the judges got to appraise along with the audience, Dedenne did a bit of tail whipping, charming and nuzzling, Piplup did a bit of growling, bubbling and water-sporting, Purrloin went with whatever here that’s cute (honing claws? woah), and Spheal mostly rolled since that’s apparently cute. As for the rules, the GM has not yet set them in stone yet, but they did their best to dazzle the viewers with cute moves.

In the end, however, regardless of who Ren thought maybe was the cutest…

‘Tonights winner is… Purrqyute, and her trainer, Penelope!’



From what Ren had heard during the show, the trainer and her Purrloin (named Purrqyute) had apparently had a considerable advantage by sheer popularity as large parts of the audience had sounded out in glee whenever she got center stage, and as so won the contest fairly easily. Penelope waved energetically and happily, while Purrloin completely ignoring it and simply grooming herself as the ribbon of victory was placed upon her, like that was completely natural. And then, it was back out again after that.

A bit later, on the way out…

‘That Penelope is a bit of a rising star~! Will be interesting to see how far that takes her…’ Joshua had a bit of a grin as he talked about the contest’s winner and what fate that might eventually await her. Then, he spun about to Ren.

‘So! That’s what a Contest is all about! Of course, that was the Cute category, meaning people come there to be overwhelmed by absurdly cute Pokémon! But, there are four other categories, as you know. People will be disappointed if they don’t see what they came to see. Haha. In any case. Has this sparked your interest?’ He asked, eagerly looking to Ren. He had also been gauging her interest during the actual contest itself.

Ewan was paying attention, ready to raise his voice just in case Joshua said something unclear or if he needed to interfere in any way, but so far so good. He walked beside them, otherwise.

__________________________

@Eklispe

The far fastest pursuer was Growlithe, who was already catching up to Dawkin’s full-speed run. However, being a fire-type, he was vulnerable to both Mud-Slap and Water Gun. Blinking a little when the two Pokémon shot their attacks, Growlithe was forced to come to a halt and jump aside to dodge, an action that was successful but bought Dawkin several more seconds as he descended into the water, going forward towards the light, and…!



There’s a lake. A round lake, surrounded by cavern walls. There’s a hole in the ceiling, allowing sunlight down, and there’s also a pretty little flow of water pouring down into the cavern. However, Dawkin merely found himself standing at the base of a fairly deep lake which was completely surrounded by walls with the sun peeking down from on top. Those walls did not look scalable to actually reach the hole. If one could actually get up there, who knows where one would end up? What would one find?

… No matter the answer to that, it did not change the fact that Dawkin had effectively plunged into a dead end.

‘… Not your day, huh.’ A slightly heavily breathing red-haired guy asked, his suit stained with a mud-slap and the bottom of his pants wet from wading, standing by the edge of the lake with his Growlithe.

‘You’ve seriously given us more trouble than you’re worth…!’ The girl frowned at him, also breathing heavily, stains of water present all over her fine suit and hair from having been just behind Ducklett when it blocked Wooper’s water-gun.

Quite the situation. What would Dawkin do?

The fight was a tough one. It was tense, it had a few risks. To see the opponent so close to victory, only to have it ripped away. Bite after bite into the plant, as the tables turned. Damage didn't matter, healing didn't matter. Tangela was reduced to hole riddled mess of tentacles as even the King admitted defeat. Nincada was doing much better after chowing down on his prey. Delicious plant food for a Bug, how fitting to put it in it's place. Martin mustered up a speech for victory, when his interest was peaked. Some rare Pokemon lies further beyond this drainage. This whole tournament was set up for who had the rights. He had a lot of fun here, but wasn't actually set on taking the princess.

"A rare Pokemon, you say? You would offer me the choice to trade your kingdom for a single unknown Pokemon? I shall spare your kingdom in favor of this beast you speak of... For now. I have bigger prey to take down, maybe even one that puts up a better challenge. Until we meet again, foolish King."

Martin gave a small bow before calling for Nincada to follow. The looks on their face was priceless, even if he had to be a villain. Still, all fun events had to come to an end, he had to see what was so special about this Pokemon. After all, he couldn't do his journey with just one Pokemon. As all of the singing reminded him that he needed backup plans, and his current ones were nonexistent. He spent enough time here, he took a calm stride until he was out of view of the kids, then picked up the pace. Looks like he got a reward from this after all.

Amelia took a minute or two to get the webbing off of her with Litwick's help. Once it was all gone, she took a second to check the direction of the Ghost-Types presence before taking off again. She didn't learn though and once again rushed, just registering her pokemon's warning in time to avoid the black dust clouds and step away from them as they spread. Taking out her pokedex and hearing what it said about the Scatterbug's, she took her time to talk around them and continue on until she found a relatively safe area. Taking a second to catch her breathe and check on her quarry, she weighed her options. She knew it was risky to continue but this whole journey was one giant risk, especially for her. Also, the fact of stopping just because something was dangerous didn't sit well with her, after hearing it her entire life.

Take a deep breathe to calm herself, she continued on, taking her time and being wary of her surroundings now. Two possibly dangerous encounters were enough for her and she would like to avoid anymore, but she knew the chances of that were slim. So best to take her time so she would have some time to react to any possible danger in time.

@PlatinumSkink

---

As the pokeball soared through the air, Claire held her breath as it collided with the bee pokemon. Ralia stood at the ready with a growl, in case it freed itself. Not that it'd do much to weaken a gust attack.

It shook once.

It shook twice..

It shook thrice...

The pokemon broke free! Well, okay, so she wasn't having beginners luck nor did she have a high luck stat, but who needed luck anyways? Not her, nope! Not when she was just this good! She didn't waste any time. As soon as it got off another gust in the direction of Ralia, Claire tossed another pokeball at it. Ralia managed to take the blow like a pro, and while knocked off her feet looked otherwise fine, though she'd probably need to heal her after this. After battling Ritz and this Combee, she was probably feeling it. But that was besides the point.

The pokeball shook once.

Twice!

...three times...and...Combee was caught!

"Awww yeah, that is what I am talking about!~" Claire did a little victory pose by pumping her fist into the air with Ralia joining in the celebrations as well. The Ralts along with its clones, did a quick little dance routine before disappearing, with Ralia giving a small giggle as she walked over to the pokeball.

"Hey Foxy!~" Claire said in reply to Delphox finally. "I caught a combee! Haha, take that ya silly bugs!~" Before the Delphox could really say anything, Claire gave the fox type a quick hug. "Hehe, thanks for the help there! Couldn't have done it without ya, but now I gotta say hi to my new teammate." Releasing the fox without realizing she was a bit...tipsy, Claire practically leaped over to where the pokeball had fallen and picked it up. Now, what to name the little bee? She had a few names already thought of, but she'd want to meet the pokemon a bit before finally deciding on a suitable name...

"Alright, Combee!" Claire said, releasing the bee pokemon from its pokeball. The bug type wobbled a bit as it regained its...erm, footing? Flighting? Aerial balance? It looked a bit confused about what happened, six little eyes darting around as it twirled on the spot, trying to figure out what happened.

"Hey there little guy!" Claire said, giving her a bright smile. "Sooo, I know you said you didn't wanna come with me and all, buuuut, heh." She thumbed the pokeball in her hands. The Combee's confused expression turned from confusion, to one of expressionless disappointment, its six little eyes staring up at Claire as a small frown formed in each of its three faces. "Soo, how about we start over? The name's Claire and-H-hey! At least let me finish talking before you buzz off somewhere!" The combee had decided to continue on with its life, and promptly flitted away from Claire. The trainer ran after it, catching up with her rather easily and coming to a halt in front of her.

"H-hey! Okay, I know, you're...probably a little angry."

"Bee bee combee." That...sounded oddly sarcastic. And antagonistic. Like the bee was calling her a pest herself. At least she would a cute pest. Ralia was off to the side, placing a hand over her mouth. She looked like she was trying not to laugh. Whatever the bee had said, it probably was an insult then. Sounded like one at least. Claire narrowed her eyes at the bee. Okay, cheeky little bugger was she? Well, if that was how she wanted to play it, Claire could play ball.

"Oho, so that's how you're gonna be, eh? Well that's cool. Totally cool, yep. Yep yep. Cool." Claire huffed, shaking her head with shrug. "I suppose I could let ya go if ya don't like me that much, buuuut...I dunno, after that battle you're looking pretty roughed up. Would be a shame if ya happened upon a beedrill or something. I was even gonna give ya a potion but if you don't want it..." For a few seconds, the six eyes narrowed at Claire, seeming to challenge that claim.

Ralia seemed to have found a berry somewhere and was nibbling on it while watching, like this was first rate entertainment. She offered one to Delphox if she wanted one.

"Combee. Bee." That sounded accusatory, mixed with a little disbelief.

"Oho, I would most certainly dare, little bee." By now a few of Ralia's clones had joined in the audience. To emphasize this point, Claire took out the potion from her bag and held it in front of the bee. "Ralia got roughed up pretty bad, and I think she needs it so if you wanna buzz off, feel free too."

"Com...bee." The six little eyes narrowed at Claire, quickly zipping up to her eye level. "Bee."

"Sooo...does that mean you'll come with me, then?~"

"...bee."

"Heh, alright then!" Claire quickly applied the potion to the Combee, giving her a bright smile. "Hehe, we got off on the wrong foot, didn't we? Lets see..." The trainer turned back to Ralts and her audience of her clones. "Lets see...I think 'Lure' would be a good name for her. What do you think Ralia?" As she asked the Question, one of the Ralts' in the audience started pointing in the direction of the combee. Claire turned her head, only to find the bug pokemon already flying away at a fairly high speed.

"Oi! Get back here you stupid bug!" Claire took off after the bee, but thankfully she hadn't managed to get very far before Ralia pointed out that both her potion and the Combee were getting away. Claire jumped, tackling the bug mid flight before it could get much further. Both pokemon and trainer landed on the ground with 'Lure' ending up under Claire. "Heh, you're not gonna make this easy for me, are ya?"

"Combee." "I'm sorry you're too much of a bad trainer to catch a simple little bee." That sounded extremely mocking and antagonistic.

"Rrrraaal." Ralia and her little audience of herself held both hands over their mouths, turning their collective heads to Claire for a comeback.

"Heh. I'm not the one who lost to this bad trainer, am I? Doesn't that make you even worse?" The Ralts' heads turned towards Lure.

In response, Combee flapped its powerful wings right at Claire's face, the gust slamming right into the trainer. It wasn't enough to hurt her, but it was enough to make her hair a complete mess. The three faces looked up at Claire with a smug smirk. Claire's hair, was now thoroughly messed up. Not that she really minded it getting a bit messy in some otherwise fin activities, but this?

This.

Stupid.

Bug.

She had offered it friendship and fun times, and what does she get? Sadness! Sadness and her fabulous hair messed up! Well fine then. The bug wanted to give her sadness, she'd give sadness in return! Claire picked up the bug type...and threw it at a tree, causing the Combee to smack into it at high speed.

"Bee-!" Upon hitting it, the Combee turned back around, and tackled Claire right in the face. The redhead pulled it off of her, and repeated the process of throwing it. This entire thing went on for about five minutes, with Ralia simply munching on a berry and watching, quite amused with the turn of events. After several minutes of this, both Claire and Lure wondered back over looking a bit roughed up. Claire's hair was a mess, and she was fairly sure she had honey smeared on parts of her body, especially her hair. Lure made a special point of messing up her hair. The combee, despite having a potion used on it prior to this little fight looked like it might have taken a bit of damage. A few dirt marks covered her body, and she looked a bit unsteady on her feet.

"Don't. Say. Anything." Claire looked over at Ralia, whose little audience of Ralts was doing their best not to laugh. Lure wore an expression that seemed to say 'I am so over this bullshit' and pressed the button on its pokeball, decided to be done with this. Claire looked back over at Delphox. There was still one more pokemon she wanted to get here, but she wasn't sure whether she should pursue it or not. With Ralia injured as she was, and with Ritz still being roughed up from his fight and with Lure being...well. No way in hell was she gonna use that thing unless she had too.

"So uh, you wouldn't have happened to KO all the Weedles, would ya?" She asked the Delphox, taking a look around the place. It seemed like most of the high level pokemon had been completely taken care of or had fled.

Lucian Vazquez

Lucian stared at the Whirilpede that had jumped down from the tree for a moment, creating a rather awkward silence. "Well. I'm not too sure what you are in relation to my new associate but it hardly matters" Lucian gestured for houndour to pick up the pokeball containing the newly captured bug type, which he quickly did. "Your little friend made a deal with me, if he won i'd heal him and his friends before taking them for a...picnic in the outer woods. But he lost so he's coming along with me" Lucian took a step back from the poison types. "Oh don't worry, I'll bring him back at some point to show you how powerful he's become, but you may wish to educate the other venipede that you shouldn't talk with strangers." He took another step back. "So ,ah, tatty-bye!" He said before bursting into sprint towards the exit of the woods, followed by houndour with the pokeball in his mouth.

Dawkin let out a barely audible growl of frustration. Talk about a false hope. He turned to face his pursuers with a cheery smile though. "Aw come on, don't you think you're being a little harsh? I'm worth a lot more trouble than this. You could've just taken the easy route and recruited me, or given me a few bucks, but nooo, you had to try to kill the random guy walking by. It's not too late you know, you can still use peaceful alternatives." Dawkin said confidently enough that it likely quite irritating given his situation warranted no such confidence. At the first sign of any further confrontational tendencies Dawkin would throw up the rope he was holding and simply leave. It was an escape rope and this most certainly counted as a dangerous area. There was the slight niggling fear at the back of Dawkin's mind that nothing would happen and he would be left trapped in this cave with two criminals that had been trying to kill him for the last five minutes. After all it hadn't exactly come with instructions.

She keep walking at the water path, it didn't feel pretty nice, when her shoes and socks was all wet, luckily the water wasen't too hot or cold. Other way she hated it and just wished it to end. Suddetly she beginned to hear a weird noised around her, noticing something blue flying near her. The flying think was pretty fast in moves and she didn't even see what it was, before something touched her hair.

She quickly turned around facing one of those bat pokemons and soon she realised that she was in big trouple now. The Zubat beginned to attack her and more was following it, biting and stirring her hair. she really didn't have a time to count how many was there, she needed to get away from them soon as possible. Covering her head to her arms she beginned to run away from them, but they keep following and the rugged ground under the river didn't really help either.

The ground was too rugged that it maked her stuble to the river, hitting her knee to thoise rocks, it sure was painful and the bats keep coming. She didn't see any other options and taked one of her pokeballs out of her back, calling her vulpix out "Flame us ember at them?" she called. The little fire pokemon used her ember toward the wild bats and it actually worked, suprised zubats flighted away.

Stooding up to her feets she taked a deep reliefed sight "Thank you flame, now come back" she said as the fire pokemon disappeared back at her ball. She turned to look the water path noticing that it beginned to end "Finally a dry ground" she said to herself taking few steps ahead the dry land. She sit down on of the rocks and looked at her knee, there was bleeding wound there, but it wasen't too big to harm her journal.

She was taked some first-aid accessories with her and what she needed now, was one little plaster. When she was done with her knee, she stooded up and continued her way toward the corridor. Hearing a some sounds again, looking around she noticed something at the river...a humans?

@Pikmin Eye

‘... Yeah. Good luck.’ The defeated king stepped aside to let Martin pass, and so the kingdom parted before the Black Knight and his Nincada, who took his leave. He had come, he had conquered and was now leaving triumphant with the destruction of his enemies in his wake. And now, he sought the reward for his troubles.

He wandered down the drain, and after leaving the area of the tourney it became a lot less interesting. Simply a dry corridor leading forward towards where Highhill Town would eventually lie. The walls weren’t quite so high that Martin couldn’t climb up at any time he desired, though it would take some effort. However, there was a goal in the end of this trip.

And there, before him, finally something out of the ordinary walked. A green Pokémon walking on four legs, staring up at the edges of the drain. Quite apparently, it was lacking the means to actually jump up that height on its own and had likely fallen down the drain on accident. On its back, was a green bud which very much looked like the early stage of a plant…





The Bulbasaur noticed Martin as he came within line of sight, and a sense of being on-guard came over the Pokémon, who turned and stood silent and still looking in his direction with prepared eyes. After that, it was all up to Martin what he wanted to do.

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii - Night

Amelia managed to avoid the cloud of dust from the Scatterbugs, and then avoided them. She treated deeper, more alert, as she followed towards where she was sensing Ghost-Pokémon, despite the danger. She was able to avoid a few more Spinarak traps due to being on-guard for them, and could avoid numerous more dens of bugs of other kinds which perhaps didn’t interest her.

So, she moved towards the ghosts… and then she felt something else. It was a different kind of feeling. It was still the signature of a Ghost-type, but it was more faint, held back somehow, and a lot closer. In fact, it was moving towards her. Just as she started feeling that, there were the sounds of vegetation moving to her right, some being moving in towards her. Maybe she got her guard up or something, when…

A woman stepped out of the vegetation. A woman in a white, long dress/robe-like outfit, with a golden cloth with markings hanging down the front, and long black hair in the middle of the night… She had a very tired expression, yet moved with decisive determination as if she had known exactly where she’d find who she was looking for. And, it seemed like she had been on the way to Amelia, as she stopped just a few meters off.



It would be immediately clear to Amelia. There was the sense of ghosts from within her possession, yet they were restrained. There was a simple explanation to this. While none of them were out, this woman had Ghost-type Pokémon… more than one.

‘… Good evening. You’re deep into dangerous woods at a perilous hour for someone so young…’ She said. ‘… If you’d kept going in that direction, you’ll end up in a Dustox-infested area. You wouldn’t be able to handle it.’ She frowned, looking somewhat tired and annoyed, yet she was trying to keep her voice level and kind, She wasn’t entirely succeeding. … But, other than that, her description matched the one of Laurinda, as the trainer earlier had described.

__________________________

@Rune_Alchemist

‘… Delph…!’ Delphox made a noise if panic when she was suddenly hugged in the midst of the confused state, and upon being released she promptly fell back onto her bottom, staring ahead while her head was still spinning. Regardless, she got onto her feet, wobbling a bit, trying to make ready just in case of unexpected trouble. Then Delphox stared a bit at Ralia when offered a berry, but with a somewhat unsteady hand she nabbed the berry and brought it into her mouth with a full palm while watching the scene. ‘Delphox.’ ”Thanks.”

The that odd little fight ensued, and Delphox could but watch with tired eyes. She settled for sitting down on the forest floor and letting the confusion pass, which it eventually did. Delphox was no longer confused. So, then when Claire eventually returned, Delphox stared at her roughed-up state with fairly unimpressed eyes. Okaaaaaay.

Yeah, upon Claire’s question, Delphox looked around her. There were tons of charred fainted bodies of Beedrills, Combees and numerous Vespiquens further away, and everything else in the woods seemed to have accepted not to try messing with the fiery fox and her consort any longer. Delphox, though, stood up slowly, flexed her shoulders a bit, and then walked over towards a random rock that just happened to lie around by a couple of trees. The fox picked up the rock.

‘Weeeeeeedleeeeeee…!’ A panicked little bug, staring up in absolute terror at the Delphox towering over it with a wand of fire and a judgmental glare, cried out fearfully where it had been hiding behind the rock. Looked mostly frozen in terror because, Delphox. It had seen what the fox was capable of, and did not want to same to happen to it.



Delphox stared at the little creature for a couple of seconds, before looking to Claire and gesturing, like, “good enough for you?”.

__________________________

@Pyromaniacwolf

The two Whirlipede listened to his words, glaring angrily at Lucian as he spoke, even as Houndour picked up the Pokéball and started taking steps backwards. They appeared to understand, buuut… The moment he turned around and started sprinting the two Whirlipedes starting spinning and took off after him, bouncing at twigs and trees to chase him.

… But, they didn’t appear to actually intend to capture him, because after only a number of meters they stopped. It had simply been a gesture of “get outa here”, the way they knew how, before they looked after him apparently satisfied before they spun around and rolled back into the woods like a pair of wheels. Lucian himself successfully ran back to the entrance of the woods, and…



Well, it’s the same. Volbeats flying about, trainers catching Pokémon and engaging in small battles, the healing hut getting some considerable amount of customers. Lucian was once again free to decide what he wanted to do now.



Connected areas:
Route 2. Close, can easily get there without complication.
Wet Caverns. Requires a bit of a walk alongside the outer regions of the woods.

If he checked his Pokédex, he’d find a record of Pokémon which other trainers had found here.



__________________________

@Eklispe

‘As if!’ The girl immediately exclaimed to Dawkin’s proposal. The guy, in the meantime, was taking the opportunity to simply grab a new cigarette and then held it out over his Growlithe, who helpfully lifted his head and blew a little flame to light it. ‘We have no reason to trust your words! You might just claim to be led along, then go report us to the authorities! Then we’d look like total fools!’ The girl continued, glaring at him.

‘We are, actually, recruiting right now.’ The guy said, breathing out a bit of smoke and looking directly at Dawkin with a tired stare. The girl turned and glared at him.

‘... You’re not serious.’ She claimed, Ducklett in front of her looking back and forth between the guy and Dawkin, paying attention and not really sure if there was battle to be had or not all of a sudden.

‘I’m completely serious. Usually, we’re just recruiting from the slums of Bigfjord City, where scum with nowhere to go will do anything for a buck, but…’ He poked off a bit of ash from his cigarette. ‘... That’s not to say we can’t pick suitable individuals from other places. So how about it, rookie? Want to be an agent? You don’t even need to do anything shady. Simply obtain the Pokémon you get commanded to obtain. The means do not matter, and you get paid. Doesn’t catching Pokémon for money sound like a pretty sweet deal for a Pokémon Trainer?’ He asked, giving a bit of a chuckle.

‘If you wish, I can take your phone-number, and then you’ll be contacted after. Of course, a requirement is that you do not mention this deal to anyone, nor our activities in this cave. Other than that, nobody even needs to know what you’re doing. Just another unseen agent, looking like any other Pokémon Trainer. Of course, if you defy that requirement, one of these unseen agents will be after you. But you can understand that, don’t you? It’s just business.’ The guy said, tipping the info that anyone could be an agent of theirs, without anyone knowing, along with the threat that someone like that would be after him if he defied them… aaaaaand no mention as to why these two didn’t dress in more discreet clothes if other agents did.

The girl had tensed up and stared, frowning at Dawkin now. The guy smirked a little coldly at Dawkin, lazy cigarette in hand, his Growlithe also looking a bit pleased by his side.

‘So how about it, rookie? Want to join us? Want to join Team Amethyst?’

__________________________

@Pink Madness

The fairly weak Zubats were able to be chased away by Flame, who gained some experience doing so. The Zubats were, however, only chased away for now and kept a healthy distance, but were there possibly intending on attacking again. But, not right now. Not with Flame watching over Donna, anyway.

When she finally came back to dry ground, she’d note that for a little while she’d be making wet footprints quite alike those she could follow. Ahead of her was a split in three directions.

To the right, there was a slightly descending tunnel that opened in a larger area. Already from here, she could see the movement of several what appeared to be families of some seemingly rock-based wild Pokémon that she couldn’t identify from this distance, and Zubats overhead of them. The tunnel went deeper, she could not see where.

In front of her, was a thinly wet tunnel which water only reached a few centimeters of height, but it went on for quite some time and then ended up in a rapid descent, past which could not be seen from here. There were a few Surskits skidding on the surface of the water.

To the left was a slightly descending rocky tunnel that appeared to be ending in a pool of water that went further out of Donna’s sight. There was light coming from this direction, and it was also the direction which those she had followed had went. And down there, she saw…



Two people, wearing high-class clothes. One guy with red hair, who was wearing a suit and smoking a cigarette, staring forward. His clothes were stained with water from wading and looked somewhat like he had recently rolled in mud (due to a Mud-Slap). At his feet stood a very obedient dog of fire…





Also down there was a girl of cyan hair tied into a pony-tail by a red hair-band, her classy green clothes stained so that it looked like she had been in a water-splashing contest with someone. At her feet stood a blue bird, a duck, looking intently forward at something outside of Donna’s sight.





(... Not that Donna necessarily would have taken their Pokédexes at this moment, might give her away, but if she did.)

The four of them were looking at something outside Donna’s sight. However, as she got closer, she did overhear one line.

‘... about it, rookie? Want to join us? Want to join Team Amethyst?’ The guy with the cigarette said, looking into the cavern.

They have not noticed her. Donna’s free to act as she pleases. Do note the presence of a Growlithe with excellent smell and hearing, though.

@PlatinumSkink

---

Finally! It was the one pokemon she had been looking for this entire time! Granted, this little misadventure netted her an adorable Ledyba and a certain bee she wasn't going to mention, but finally! A Weedle! It was perfect! Now, if only she could manage to capture it with relatively little effort. As terrified as it looked, it looked like it might be easy. Hopefully she could finally get her mitts on a pokemon she wanted without fighting for once.

She also mostly did not want to use that Combee.

"Wahahaha, thanks Delphox." Claire laughed brightly as she walked over, Ralia and her clones trailing along behind her. "You're scaring the poor thing though, I think." Kneeling down, Claire put herself as close to the same level as Weedle as she could.

"Hey there little guy! No need to mind the giant scary Delphox. She's not gonna hurt ya." She gave the bug pokemon a bright smile. Ralia and her clones had decided to give the Weedle a friendly wave, bounding over and giving the bug type a small grin and holding out a hand, despite the obvious danger in doing so. "So, how about we skip the entire part where one of us beats up the other and you come with me, yeah?~"

She was honestly sort of ready to get out of here. She needed to get her team healed, and then head off into Wet Caverns to train a bit. It'd be a lot easier to train Ralia there at least, with less poison types about.

Martin felt the treatment of a feared warrior who toppled a kingdom. This little game was over, and it was going to be disappointing, but time to go back to reality. For this effort, there was a Pokemon up ahead for him to take a look at. The path was long, with the walls being high, but not hard to get out of. Eventually he came to his prize, a green Pokemon with a leaf on it's back. Martin pulled out his Pokedex, waiting to read what was in front of him. Sounded like Bulbasaur, which was a grass type. What a let down, all of this work for a- wait a second. It was a Grass/Poison type. This could be salvaged, he can make this work. The Pokemon was getting ready for a fight. Trapped in a corner, with nowhere to go. This was going to be nice and easy.

"Nincada, there's our target. Go easy on it and weaken that Bulbasaur. One Scratch should be enough." Nincada gave a nod, looking over it's opponent. He ran forward, claws raised for a hit. Yet, it tried to hold back on his own power, something that most likely just wasn't going to happen. Martin was preparing to throw a pokeball at Bulbasaur after it got hit. Assuming he didn't disappoint himself by one hit knocking out Bulbasaur. A second choice should help him get deeper in the woods next time.

Once more, Joshua's sudden exclamation caused Ren to backpedal a bit, though she nodded in understanding quickly. There was something about the spontaneous nature of the young man which threw Ren off completely, to which she couldn't help but respond in understanding. She followed Ewan and Joshua to the ticket booth, allowing Joshua to pay (for fear of another heart attack), and went inside to review the stadium...

Needless to say, Ren was awestruck. Though she had seen plenty of large structures on the outside, seeing them from within was something new entirely, and it took Moyra a moment to remember she was essentially invited there and thus should keep up with her associates. She does so and sits beside them, startled by the button contraption before her. She studied it for a moment before listening intently to the announcer's voice, picking up on the basics of the competition. With the rules in mind, she went about voting in the first competition fairly simply: two votes for Dedenne, one for Piplup, two for Purloin, one for Spheal. Round two consisted of similar votes, however Dedenne and Purloin were both given a single vote from Ren, leaving Piplup and Spheal in the dust. Though Piplup did decently, the other two swept the floor in Ren's eyes and displayed the greatest amount of cooperation and trained experience together, alongside being cute. As for Spheal, well... Ren wasn't very fond of the small round Pokemon.

As Penelope and Purrloin were announced as the victors, Ren nodded in agreement. "They displayed the most amount of skill and looked like they both worked hard to achieve such a standing, whilst also being cute. It's no wonder they won, and likewise why they're so popular." She said this unconsciously, though it might have been loud enough for Joshua or Ewan to hear, assuming they weren't screaming in delight or her voice wasn't too overshadowed by the crowd.

As they exited the stadium, Ren paid her thanks to Joshua for paying, and insisted that she should pay him back sometime. "Really, I do owe you for this, and I am in your debt. To answer your question... yes, I am interested, though perhaps it would be a good idea to watch some more to learn about contests. I wouldn't want to participate if I were ill-prepared, much the same as I would a battle." Though she wouldn't admit so directly, she secretly liked the idea of contests and drawing a closer bond with her Pokemon. She left her words as they were, suggesting she was interested, though with nothing concrete yet.

To say the trip was uneventful would be a lie. Amelia constantly had to keep her eye out for webs and nests, which Litwick and Shuppet were of great help. As she navigated the woods, heading closer to her target, she stopped when she sensed something unsual. More Ghost-types, but they felt faint. Not only that, they were close, which confused her greatly. If she could sense the other Ghost-type from so far off, why did this one only pop up when it was close.

The answer came in the form of a woman, who's rather sudden appearance surprised Amelia a bit, as she had been temporarily lost in her thoughts. Turning towards the woman, she was a bit awestruck by how pretty they looked, but still managed to catch what they said. Remembering what the other trainer had said, she guessed this was Laurinda. She gave the older trainer a kind smile.
"Sorry, but I can't turn back after getting so far. I... heard there were ghost-types deeper in and I'm hoping to find a Phantump, since this seems like the kind of environment to find them in. Being Ghost-types, they'll be most active during the night, so this is my best shot." She said, lying a bit. She knew most people wouldn't believe her when she brought up her ability, so she knew lying was inevitable. "You're Laurinda right? You should know if there are any in these woods, shouldn't you?"

She ended up walking toward very rocky tunnel, where was pool of water there as well. She was going to walk further, but stopped immendeatelly when heared someones speaking there.

There was large rocks front of her and she walked behing them to peek. noticing a red haired guy and Cyan haired girl, they was seemed to speak with someone, but the rocks blocked the way so she could see who. Thought all she could see was a shadow.

She gasped when unheared what the red haired guy said 'Team amethyst?' she thought herself. Hearing that It sure awakened her interest she really wanted to know more, but how? There was rocks near, but all of them was too far for her to reach without being noticed by them.

Bitting her lips she tryed to focus a plan to spy them, but was she already being seen? The little blue duck pokemon was already looking at her way.

@Rune_Alchemist

‘Phox.’ Delphox merely commented before taking a few steps away, crossing her arms and idly positioning her wand so that she could waste time by staring into the fire.

The Weedle stared up at Claire where it was placed. To get as close to Weedle’s height as she could she’d likely have to almost lie down, it was only 30 cm tall (compared to full length or what, official stats?), and in obvious distress as she lowered herself. It lowered its stinger in warning when she came closer… but then turned out to not attack, since she didn’t. Its gaze waved between her, Ralia + clones and Delphox for a few seconds when Claire made her offer.

Sooooo, Weedle glanced around a bit. It was an empty scenery filled with the charred fainted bodies of those who had engaged with Delphox, who was still standing over there, and… … …

‘Weedle.’ The bug jumped onto Claire’s hand, quite content with taking the less painful option.



‘It appears… you’ve gone a bit wild.’ Laurinda suddenly came walking back, a calm expression on her face as she watched over the surroundings. She didn’t look all that approving, and Delphox was completely declining looking at Laurinda for the moment while her trainer stared at the bipedal fox for a couple of seconds, before giving a bit of a sigh, accepting the situation.

There was someone behind her that had walked along. The girl of average height stood with blonde hair, white shirt and black-white patterned skirt, gazing over the surroundings with a look like she owned the place and had everything in complete control, even though she clearly didn’t. Her blonde hair extended in two long twin-tails, and she looked quite impressed with the field of destruction, and her gaze wandered to rest on Claire.



‘… Oooh? Heh…’ She made the slightest of a sound effect, looking interested, but otherwise kept quiet.

‘… I’ve finished my business.’ Laurinda stated, looking a bit exhausted. She looked at Claire. ‘We’re heading back. I’m not leaving you here.’ She stated, her voice a bit less patient than it had been on the way here.

__________________________

@Pikmin Eye

So, at the command, Nincada dashed forward and scratched at Bulbasaur. The reptile with a bud on his back recoiled a bit as the bug’s slice scratched him, damaged, and then Martin threw his Pokéball. So, the Pokéball sailed through the air and-

SMACK

… Bulbasaur struck it out of the air with a Vine Whip, staring forward at Nincada with a little scratch-wound on his cheek but apparently not all that damaged by it. This Pokémon might be higher level than Martin had anticipated, and had just deflected the Pokéball with little additional thought. The Pokéball flew into the wall on the side and bounced to a standstill on some rocks, still completely fine and able to be thrown again if Martin retrieved it.

‘… Bulba-SAUR!’ The green Pokémon used Growl, right into Nincada’s face, reducing his attack. Then, the Vine Whips rose, making ready to strike down at Nincada to make life a bit more unpleasant. Martin maybe had to consider again how he wanted to go about with this.

__________________________

@Delta44

During the contest, Joshua had been ranking the contestants between 1 to 10, pressing the button as many times as he gave them the rank. Though, from the sound of it, there were quite a few in the audience who were just smashing the button like crazy whenever anything was on stage. It was like its own kind of applause.

At the time of the announcement of the winner, there would indeed have been quite a bit of cheering. Ewan wasn’t the kind to shout out, though Joshua had started to but stopped himself when he realized Ren was speaking. Hearing Ren speaking was much more important than just making noise. He then nodded eagerly at her words, though still paying attention.

‘Don’t worry, it was my pleasure~’ Joshua responded to the thanks. He then listened to her talk about being interested and… Joshua turned and pointed north. ‘The adventure starts in Redcoast City!’ He announced. ‘Named so for the color of the skies in the twilight hours as you stand on their coasts, it holds the Normal Rank Pokémon Contests! There, they also have training for all potential contestants and all the information on the matter which could be of use! Potential coordinators gather there, hoping to make it big!’ So he informed, and turned to smile at Ren. Pikachu dashed up and landed on Joshua’s shoulder as he did, also smiling happily.

‘I’d love to fund you watching more shows, but now we’re broke too!’ Joshua grinned happily, his face saying “worth it”.

‘He’s broke. I’m not.’ Ewan corrected, though he didn’t look like he was intending on spending his remaining funds.

‘Yupp! So, we probably need to do some of this actual Pokémon adventuring to earn some funds for when we arrive in Redcoast City! You might also want to catch Pokémon, if you want to use different Pokémon in each category, or maybe you want to try making your partner become the All-Star?’ Joshua spun about, Pikachu holding on for dear life, while shielding his eyes with a hand, as if to look mysterious all of a sudden.

‘Aaaah, the legendary All-Star… A Pokémon that has been able to win all five categories. Its existence is a myth, for no Pokémon has ever managed to do it…’ Joshua chuckled a little. ‘Penelope is attempting it with Purrqyute. She’s already won in all categories on Normal Rank, and she’s got Clever, Beautiful and Cute covered on Super Rank. I predict she’s going to struggle with Tough and Cool, however…’ He looked to the Pikachu on his shoulder. ‘Think you could do it, little buddy?’

‘Pika-pikachu!’ The Pokémon promptly lifted both hands in determined victory to gesture that indeed he thought he could. Joshua chuckled a little. ‘Of course you will!’ He then spun back to Ren, making Pikachu hold on again while Joshua smiled to her.

‘Hey, how about we exchange numbers? Even if we go separate ways, we can call one another when we eventually reach Redcoast City, and continue the discussion then! Or, if you ever just wanna chat sometimes, that’s fine too!’ Joshua offered, taking up his Pokédex, because it was also his phone with numbers and such. ‘You offer too, Ewan!’ Joshua commanded.

Ewan had merely been standing, watching with a neutral calm expression, but did a little nod to his friend’s command.

‘Alright. I remind once again, declining is an option, but at the very least, this is an option we’re offering. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.’ Ewan said, reaching to potentially take his out too. All depending on what Ren wanted now.

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii - Night

‘…’ Laurinda looked at the young trained with a slightly concerned expression, taking a little while to answer. Though, then she finally did.

‘Who told you that? I sincerely hope the words came with a grave warning. Because, their presence in these woods are unknown to most travellers. In fact… … … Who told you?’ She reiterated the first question, looking concerned with this. Regardless of the answer, Laurinda would then continue speaking.

‘Listen. Attempting to get a Ghost-Pokémon out of these woods is possible, but extremely dangerous, especially at your level.’ She said, having discerned the level of Amelia’s Pokémon with but a glance. ‘I would not recommend that you try traversing there on your own. I would also therefore appreciate if you do not tell any other young trainers of their presence in these woods, or the number of trainers I have to save before they get into trouble is going to increase considerably.’ Laurinda stated, looking a bit tired. She might have had a long day.

Nincada ran forward, expecting a single shot and it would be done. The hit struck it's target, and barely did anything. Nincada was surprised, as well as Martin when his Pokeball was rejected by a Vine Whip. Well then, this was going to actually be a fight. Nincada was hit with a growl, trying to scare the Bug Type. Vine Whip was going to be next to hit him.
"Nincada, dodge that attack and armor up with Harden. Looks like this will be a challenge, so start by trying to minimize the pain. Dodge the hits until it's time to go in, just like last time. Three Hardens should be good enough before you get back in there."
Nincada gave another nod, and tried to jump back. He was focusing on getting out of the way and using Harden. Martin was trying to watch the Pokeball that flew away. He might be able to get that later, but he still had a few more he could use. Focus on the fight, this won't be some simple battle. There was spirit in Bulbasaur's eyes. It was a fighter, and he wanted this one now. Martin pointed at Bublasaur, he wanted to make sure his point was clear. "I'm calling my shot, you're gonna be on my team, get ready."