Ant

The new group that Ant had joined were slowly making there way outside one by one, getting ready to move on towards Viridian Forest. "Anthony Blackledge, could you please come to the reception desk. Your Pidgey is fully healed." A voice said echoed around the room.

Ant looked up towards the speakers slightly scared for a split second thinking he was in trouble when he heard his name. "Okay guys I'll meet you outside. Come on pal." He looked down at his Growlithe and smiled. When they got downstairs he walked over slowly to the reception, looking at the nurse on the desk who he thought was really cute. "Urm hi, I'm here for my Pidgey."

"Name?" She asked with a smile.

"Well I've not really come up with a name for her but something along the lines of fighter... She decided to attack me whilst I was sleeping." Ant let out a little laugh, confused as to why he told her that.

She laughed in reply and politely said, "No, I need to know your name so I know which Pidgey is yours."

Ant went red looking straight at her. "Ant Blackledge." He said quickly and quietly. When she walked off Ant clinched his eyes shut hoping that he was actually in a dream. "Obviously she was talking about your name, you fool." He whispered to himself.

A second later the nurse walked back with a Pokeball. "She's back to full health and she'll be fighting you in no time." The nurse giggled at him. "We hope to see you again."

"Thanks... I'm pretty sure I'll be back sometime." Ant replied forcing a smile to the nurse but as soon as he turned away the smile completely vanished from his face. He only wished he could get sucked up into a Pokeball and disappear.

As Ant walked outside he let out a massive sigh and went and sat down on a bench. The rest of the group were a little ahead of him outside a coffee shop getting some drinks. Ant didn't really like coffee so he wasn't too bothered about getting anything. It took a moment for Ant to realise that the Pokeball with his Pidgey in it was in his hand and Ant decided to let her out. The Pokemon flew out of the Pokeball and she landed on Ants leg. The Pidgey looked up at Ant and just stared at him. The two just stared at each other not breaking eye contact as Growlithe just sat on the bench watching the stare down. From the looks of things, the Pidgey was never going to back down, all she did was narrow her eyes as she carried on looking at Ant. "Hmmmm so what am I going to call you." Ant thought out loud. [color=00a651]"I think I'm going to call you Scrappy." The Pidgey let out a quick squawk which seemed to be an approval of the name. Ant smiled and scratched her head and the Pidgey looked slightly annoyed from the show of affection. "Well I'm glad you're happy with it." Ant said happily, chuckling to himself at the annoyed look on Scrappies face. "Well I think it's time to get a move on. You'll have to go back into your Pokeball for now, but I'll bring you out in a bit when we get to the forest so you can have a fly and hopefully I'll be able to catch some grass and water Pokemon. See you soon." A second later Scrappy was back in her Pokeball and Ant jumped up to meet up with the rest of the group. "Are you ready pal?" He asked his Growlithe.

Growlithe stood up on the Bench and enthusiastically barked, "Growlithe, Growlithe!" Then the Pokemon jumped off the bench and started walking down the road at the side of Ant.

A few moments later Ant had caught up with everyone and simply said, "Are you lot ready then?"

The cool glass of the bakery display began to warm and condensate as the breaths of Ezra and Brie fogged it up. “Heya, son.” The elderly gentleman behind the counter broke the two from their gaze. As Ezra rose up (and then rose over) the man’s person, he began his spiel.

“This here’s Maxwell’s Coffee, welcome.” The proprietor started in a jovial, yet humble drawl. “Here we treat coffee with the respect it deserves. Judging by the famished looks on you and your pokemon’s face, I can only assume y’all missed breakfast.” Ezra nodded enthusiastically.

The well-traveled gentleman shook his head at the boy. “Y’can’t be doing nothing like that, son! Y’got a lotta heft to ya, muscle like that needs to be maintained!” The man’s tone of concern quickly transitioned to one of a salesman.

“Luckily, you ran in here for a pit stop. Now, we may not sell any hot meals, but you can definitely fill up with some of our baked goods, and wash it down with a tall cup of our world-famous coffee! Y’know, something to hold y’over until you hit the next town.” The man leaned in, and Ezra almost vibrated in anticipation.

“Anything catch ya eye, lad?”

“...Your entire stock…?” Ezra replied, the ferocious growl of his stomach almost drowning out his weak request. Of course, this got a hearty chortle out of the store’s owner. “My emergency fund is bottomless, I will spare no expense.” Ezra quietly reiterated the request, and his phone (which was still in the middle of a call) came to life.

“Uh, no??” Ezzie called from the pocket of his shorts.

“Who’s that?”

“My sister.”

“Well, as much as I'd like to oblige your request son, I’ll have to agree with your sister. I gots a service to provide here, the greatness of coffee and baked goods can’t be hogged by one person y’see.” He calmly explained. “I’ll give you an extra large piece of crumb cake though, how’s that sound?” Ezra and Brie replied with another rapid nod.

“And an iced coffee, please.”

“Sure, son.”

Beyond the preparation and exchange of funds, Ezra gave his thanks and proceeded back into the world. Brie slid from his shoulder to the fold in his raised arm to pick at the sweet cakey goodness in his hands. Naturally Ezra quickly noticed Lizbeth in the scene, talking up Lilith. As he neared the two, a change in the redhead’s makeup immediately caught his attention.

“Lizbeth, your eyes!” He exclaimed as he chewed.

“What’s wrong with wifey?!” They could hear from his pocket.

“She was kinda wobbly earlier, and now her eyes are red! I’m really thinking she’s dehydrated!”

“Lemme see!”

With his hands already full, Ezra did what he could to take out his phone and present Lizbeth to the call once more. Ezzie and Sammi stood by and checked out the girl as the tall trainer practically shoved his phone in her face.

“...Those are contacts, Eazy.” Ezzie stated simply.

“Either that or she can change her eye color, which would be wicked.”

“Are you sure?” He wanted to confirm, closing the distance even more. “Now even her face's getting red!”

“...Probably because you’re all up in her grill, bro.” Ezzie elaborated, but Ezra wasn’t entirely convinced.

With the ponigiri distributed, Hana stowed the container and looked to Satomi. "Shall we see about finding another training opportunity, then?" Satomi simply nodded, falling into step beside her Trainer as the latter headed for the tall grass along the road north. Initial forays suggested that many of the same species could be found both south and north of Viridian - but many of them scattered and disappeared at the sight of Hana carefully walking along the outskirts of their habitats.

Or perhaps Satomi was causing them to run off. A Steel-type was not something commonly seen in these parts, Hana surmised. Though that didn't stop one particularly aggressive creature from running in out of the blue, almost knocking Satomi off her feet with the speed of its initial charge. "Mankey! Manmankey!"

Satomi rounded on the ball of fur and limbs, raising her claws as Hana took a quick scan with her Pokédex:


"Well, then. This could be difficult. Satomi, let's see if we can win this." Satomi obliged, beginning with a single swipe at her opponent. An exploratory Scratch to test his defenses. The Mankey was quick to retaliate, seemingly forgoing all strategy in favour of all-out assault. Satomi was able to deflect the first reckless swing, but the second and third got past her defenses. They only seemed to glance off her metal body, but Satomi seemed shaken more by the aggressive behaviour than anything else.

Hana had a very similar reaction. Never had she seen a Pokémon that gave so little thought to its own safety in favour of recklessly attacking its adversary. But she couldn't exactly ask anyone to step in on her behalf; she had to deal with this creature herself. Focus. Remember the basics. Opponent is Fighting-type: that means Daring Strike and Fury Cutter won't work here. We have to wear him down. "Satomi, Leer!" Her partner threw off another swing, drew herself up to her full height and fixed the Mankey with an imperious glare, clanging her blade-hands together as she did so. This only seemed to drive the Mankey into a greater rage, as he redoubled his efforts to batter at Satomi's metal form without making contact with any sharp edges. No easy task, considering how many she possessed.

"All right, Satomi, claws out. Wear him down with Scratches."

"Pawn-ya!" In a sharp contrast to Mankey's wild swings and full aggression, Satomi's fighting style was precise and controlled. She aimed for the center of Mankey's large fuzzy form, though the flailing limbs took several hits that were meant for center mass. The Mankey seemed to be getting desperate, swinging at any part of Satomi he could reach - and recoiling when a hand or foot found one of the many bladed edges on her person.

The two exchanged blows for a while longer, but Satomi eventually managed to send her adversary keeling over onto his back, exhausted. Whether that was because her strikes had done significant damage, or the Mankey had worn himself out trying to punch through metal armour, Hana didn't know. All she was certain on was that such a creature wasn't going to be compatible with her approach to battle. She doubted food would be a good training tool to quell the rage that Mankey could seemingly fly into on a moment's notice, according to the Pokédex.

"Well done, Satomi. That looked rough." Hana crouched down to inspect her partner Pokémon. She seemed to be covered in little scratch marks. Nothing a Potion or a good meal and a buffing wouldn't fix. She shook her head all the same as she stood up. "Look at you. Stars above... I hope we don't have to face more of those. Let's stick to the road for now. We don't want to get too far away from the others." Satomi nodded wholeheartedly, staying close to Hana as she retreated back to the main road.

After the ruckus in the kitchen had died down, Fary trailed behind the group on route 2, Emily on her shoulders. She was still feeling down from her call with Grimsley, but Lizbeth did help her feel a lot better. Why did he want to bother her after all this time and what the hell did he want? Emily sensed her trainer's dismay and whined slightly. "Zorua, aa ruua?" Hey, don't feel down. She licked her cheek, but Fary seemed.. unmoved by the gesture. She was still struggling to connect with Emily, but the affection did help her feel a bit better.

Fary realized she got behind the rest of the group but was ok with that fact, she just wanted her own space for right now. "I guess we're a bit behind the group. Here, let's take a chance and give you something to eat. Fary stopped at a stump and dug out someone her handmade Pokemon food. It was high-grade food that would give any Pokemon the needed nutrients they needed. She was about to give Emily some when a wild Mankey swooping in to steal the food and jumped on a nearby tree branch to chow down. After a bite, the Mankey's ear perked up and he shuffled back over to Fary after scarfing down the stolen treat.

Fary laughed softly, "Seems like you liked my cooking. You know, you can have more IF you come on my journey with me. I'll be more than happy to give you more if you get into this Pokeball." Fary pulled out some of her Pokemon treats and a Pokeball. The mankey shifted over to her and sniffed the treat than the ball, clearly thinking and understanding what was going on. "Mankey? Manmanmankey!" Food? Smells like GOOD food! Fary giggled and offered the Mankey a treat, watching him scarf it down quickly then looked at her for more. "If you want more, you'll need to agree to join me. I'll take good care of you, I promise." She offered the mankey the Pokeball and pulled out her Pokedex, scanning him.



The Mankey sniffed the ball again the pressed the button with his nose, letting the light pull him into the ball without a fight, the light instantly clicking off when he was inside. "We have another member of our team." Emily was hiding from the mankey until it was inside of the bull, but as soon as Fary let him out again, she hid. "Zorua, ruruzorua zorua!" Hey, that thing looks scary. The mankey cuddled up to Fary, begging for another treat until Fary give one to him. "Mankey, KEYKEYKEY." You're nice and have tasty food!

Fary thought for a moment on the mankey's name. "Hmmm I think I'll call you Mongo. How does that sound? Mongo didn't seem to care and only munched away at the treat she gave him, Emily eating her own lunch while eyeing the mankey. After a few minutes of snacking, Fary started to walk back to the group again, managing to be only a few feet away after 10 minutes of fast walking, Mongo right behind her, looking around and staying close to Fary as they went.

Ant

The group slowly started to split up with everyone heading towards the same destination but on the search for new Pokemon. The sun was slowly going down now and Ant started to consider to stay in Veridian City for the night and wait until the morning before travelling. Walking through the forest was said to be hard enough during the day never mind at night but if everyone else was going he didn't want to be left behind again.

After walking for a bit, they started to head into the wilderness with less and less buildings the further they got with a wall of trees in the distance that slowly got bigger. As Ant walked up the path, he decided to wonder off into the grass seeing what Pokémon were about, there was odd movements in the grass but Ant couldn't really see what was making it. Growlithe was at his side before he darted off in front and Ant chased after him. "Pal wait up!" Ant shouted trying to find out where he'd ran off to. He could hear Growlithe a further bit in front of him growling and after a few seconds Ant had ran into a bit of a clearing were Growlithe and another Pokémon was circling each other. Quickly Ant got his Pokedex out to find out some information on it.



"So it looks like you've found a challenge Pal... Well let's show it what you're made of then." It was the Poochyena who made the first move, charging straight at Growlithe with a tackle but he lazily jumped out of the way of it with the Poochyena not even getting close to him. Straight away Growlithe was on the attack. "Quickly hit it with ember Pal." Fire came from Growlithes mouth and hit the other Pokémon in the stomach but a split second was on the attack again pouncing on top of Growlithe and this time he didn't have time to get out of the way and was knocked onto the floor, then Poochyena bit down on Growlithes leg, he let out a whelp of pain but managed to shake it off and jumped back up. Ant winced as he heard the noise Growlithe made but managed to shout. "Quickly use leer now!" Growlithe glared at the Poochyena as the Pokemon was charging at him again. The wild Pokémon was put off by the look and tripped whilst it was running. "Finish it off now with Double edge.!" Growlithe charged at the fallen Pokémon and smashed into him with his head and that was the end of the fight. The Poochyena was knocked out cold. Growlithe was shaking it's head from the recoil of hitting him. Ant ran over to him to check how he was doing, the bite looked pretty nasty so Ant got out a potion straight away as he knelt down rummaging through his bag. "How you doing?" Ant asked with a nervous tone in his voice.

"Growlithe, Growlithe." The Pokémon was trying to play it cool like nothing was up with him but it was clear from the walk it was a bad one.

[color=00a651]"Well let's just make sure you're good and spray your leg with this, we've still got quite a walk until the next city." Growlithe flinched as the potion touched his leg, after a few moments Ant scratched pal on the head and asked, "Are you ready?" Straight away the Pokémon got back onto all fours and headed off again without waiting for Ant. The forest was getting even closer now and when Ant looked around everyone was scattered about on the lookout for their own Pokémon to catch and fight. A little further on a lone tree stood just a little in front of the forest and one Pokémon was perched up against it.



Ant looked down at Growlithe who was looking up at him. "Well we do need a grass Pokémon." Growlithe nodded his head seeming to agree and started to move forward. "Wow where do you think you're going?" Growlithe looked up at Ant quizzically wondering why he couldn't go. [color=00a651]"I think we should let the newest member of the group take this one on... Besides I don't want you setting it on fire." Ant laughed as he grabbed a Pokeball from his belt. "Come on Fury, let's see what you've got." A bright spark came from the Pokeball and then Pidgey flew out circling Ant as he looked at her smiling. At that moment the wild Pokémon finally looked up to see them. Seedot just stood up and watched them as Fury flew at it, the Pidgey didn't need an invitation to fight ramming straight into Seedot with a tackle. As Fury was flying away a red beam came out of Seedot but it didn't really seem to do much towards Pidgey who came charging back again. "Hit it with sand attack." Ant shouted before the Pidgey attacked and she flew out of the way before coming into contact and sprayed a load of sand. A red beam came out of Seedot again but didn't manage to hit Fury this time. Once more she flew at the Seedot and hit it with a tackle and flew off again. The wild Pokémon started to look dazed and Ant knew it couldn't really take much more damage, "Okay that's enough now Fury." Ant calmly said as he threw a Pokeball at the Pokémon which didn't put up much of a fight. Ant smiled to himself and said, "And that's number three." He walked over to the Pokeball that was laying next to the tree that the wild Pokémon was at. Fury was perched on one of the tree branches above them looking down with some other wild Seedot's scurrying away from the Pidgey after watching what she did. Ant picked up the ball and let it out. "Welcome to the band Seedot... I just need to think of a name for you" Ant said in a soothing tone as he went to one knee taking off his bag. "Sorry about that little fight but I promise we'll make it up to you." The Seedot looked sad obviously from being attacked from the Pidgey but soon looked up at Ant who was rummaging through his bag were he pulled out a load of treats. Warily the Seedot took a piece and started eating which made Ant smile as Pidgey hopped down onto Ants shoulder wanting a piece as well. Ant laughed at the boldness from Fury as he passed her a piece as well, he then looked over at Growlithe who was sat down looking at them all. "I'm sure you want a piece as well." He threw a piece over to Pal who caught it in mid air and practically swallowed it whole. A few minutes later after Ant and his growing team took a little break, they all stood up and began to head into the forest.