It didn't take long for everyone to settle down. Leon took to staying nearby Rasca with his Pokemon and Yellow, eventually, retreated to her room. In what appeared to be less than an hour, the two were left alone together in the small hut. Leon had taken to caring for his Pokemon, ensuring that Charmander and Nido were both alright. As it turned out, Oddish had joined him, staying near the other two. It seemed to have taken a liken to him after the sudden rescue.

A few moments passed in silence before Leon glanced towards his friend's sleeping form. "Hey...Rasca. Are you awake?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder lightly. He didn't like waking his friend. He simply did not want to stay in the hut much longer. Yellow had been kind. Their journey still awaited, though. "We could probably sneak out if you wanted to now. Yellow's gone to bed."

"Mhm. Les get ready..." Rasca's mumbles barely pierced above a whisper. She sleepily rolled over with her jacket clutched tightly, throwing Superior off her back and onto the ground with a thump! In retaliation, he squawked loudly in her ear. This in turn, gave her a startled awakening, sitting upright almost immediately afterwards. "Okay.. that was not fun. Or fair." Scowling at her Nidoran, she picked up Bulbasaur gently, and cradled him. Superior gave her a rude look, to which she replied, "Hey, if you were a bit nicer, then maybe i would coddle you like this." Rasca pointed to where she assumed Yellow turned in for the night. "Now go and check on her, see if that old hag is still awake. Then come on back here, and we'll leave."

"So uh, think we can still make it?" It wouldn't take long for Superior to complete his task that she had sent him on. If he was even going to do that much. He could be just waddling around the house, and digging in the trashcan. 'I should have asked Leon to tell my pokemon what to do. Then he might have listened.' Rasca gave up on that thought and decided to just pack up her stuff anyway. If he wasn't back by the time they were ready to leave, then she would just look for him. It couldn't be too hard in a hut this small.

Leon was quick to get them out of the house. Nido had went with Superior, the two coming back rather quickly and letting the group get out with their stuff packed. As they all got outside, he let out a small sigh. "We should be good now," he said. "If we keep along north, we should hit Pewter City in a few hours. If you still want to rest, we can stop and do so. I just didn't want to stay stuck in her hut all night." He smiled a bit, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry to wake you like that. We can find a place to camp out if you want to sleep some more."

Rasca shrugged indifferently, brushing off his kind gestures like dust. "No thanks, i don't wanna waste time scooting out of here. I'm ashamed to know that i fell asleep so quickly." She huffed, a bit upset. "It was supposed to be a trick. Stupid idea." Putting Bulbasaur back down on the ground, she waited for Superior to be by her side again. He toddled up to her, and then passed her up on the way. Taking the lead as if he knew the way to Pewter city, or even where they were going. "Yo, Sup! Wait up, i wanna go to Pewter city too!" Even Bulbasaur charged after them, lashing out his vines to attach himself to her bag strap. Rasca looked down at her friendly leech, thinking of the swing that hung in her room at home.

Leon smiled a bit at their antics. "Well, I suppose we should follow after them," he said with a shrug. Nido rushed off, Oddish on its back. The small Nidoran had taken to caring for the grass type, even carrying it around until she was sure it was fully healed. Charmander had remained by Leon, keeping a steady pace behind him as they walked after the group. It was a rather diverse party at this point. Nido had taken to mothering his other caught Pokemon and Charmander seemed to have a thing for positioning himself at Leon's side. Oddish was a little bit scared most of the time, but it appeared to be getting comfortable with his other Pokemon.

As he caught up with Rasca, he placed a hand on her shoulder, smiling a bit. "Are you trying to catch another Pokemon before we leave? Or do you just want to make straight for Pewter City. Bulbasaur and Superior will have an easy time with the gym's rock types," he explained. "I'm relying on Oddish and Nido on my end." It seemed he was planning to enter the battles to now. He had sounded like he wasn't going to previously.

"Uhh..no i don't think so. If you say what we have now in our team is enough, then i trust you to be right." Awkwardly, she place her hand on top of Leon's, but the smile she returned was genuine. "I'm sure we'll be fine, when it comes to fighting brock." Her hand slipped off his, gouging into her pocket as Rasca resumed walking again. Brock was only the first leader to mess with, so he shouldn't be too hard to beat. Then again...there was no harm in being prepared.

She walked backwards for a bit, posing a question towards him. "Why don't we get some poke health items before we go gym racing? I'm sure we won't regret it." She did not add however, the fact that Yellow would probably say that since Leon was so great; He could do it without items from the pokemart. Thankfully, that wench wasn't around to spoil her mood, so she left it out of the conversation. Rasca turned back around as she waited to hear what Leon would say about that, slightly annoyed at his change of plans. 'Make up your mind already!'

Leon's face colored ever so slightly as her hand came to rest atop his. He glanced away quickly, hiding his embarrassment and let his hand drop from her shoulder. He gave a nod at her assessment, already agreeing with it. Two Nidorans could probably take Brock. Nidoran could learn Double Kick, a move that was already super effective against rock-type Pokemon. Their advantage was only added to when you put in Bulbasaur and Oddish. They would be fine, without the need of a third member. He just felt odd having three Pokemon when she only had two. He knew Rasca was competitive. It was part of the reason he wanted to get away from Yellow's hut rather than accepting the praise.

His thoughts were interrupted as she posed her question, though. He raised an eyebrow for a moment, considering it. "Wouldn't hurt," he replied. "Even if we come out without having to use them, I'm sure they'll help while we traveling between cities with no Pokecenter in sight." His smile faded as he scratched the back of his head as he came back upon his previous line of thought. "I...kind of wanted to apologize for back at the hut, though. I don't know what Yellow sees in me, but I don't think I can beat Red or Blue or any of them alone. I think her praise was a bit much. I'm just knowledgeable. I think you're a better battler than I could be." His smile returned, sheepish as he commented on her skill. "I think she's being a bit overzealous about it." He glanced away again, more unsure about this line of thought. He had begun to think on why Yellow would have helped him and, given what he was able to do, he had formed a theory. How true that theory was could still be debated, though.

Rasca lowered her shades ever so slightly, thinking she saw a change come over Leon's face when she touched his hand. Her thoughts dismissed it quickly though, as she figured the darkness was playing tricks on her eyes. By the time it became closer to morning, things would be much easier to see, no doubt. Unless it became one of those horridly dark days. She looked up at the sky, as if to guess what type of weather would be coming their way. 'Sunny.' She decided mentally. 'Some weather forecaster i'll turn out to be, if i'm wrong.'

"Hnh. It's no big deal Leon. But thanks, I'm sure we'll find someone in the next city who will praise my obvious talents to the skies!" She laughed, and kicked up small pebbles beneath their feet. "Once we beat Brock however, we'll see who really is the better one." Bulbasaurs vines were still wrapped tight around her bag, so she became more careful trying to open it. Muttering to herself about how many items they could fit inside of their bags, before Flipping the cover shut. All of a sudden, she bent over while walking, quickly scooping up Superior into her arms. He struggled mildly, until Rasca gave him a treat. "Good boy. I sure hope the pokecenters have more pokemon food."

Leon looked curious at her comment, his blush having faded over time. They would see which one of them is the best? Did she mean through battling each other or as a result of their battle with Brock? He supposed he'd find out. He didn't really want to face Rasca in battle. As much as it pained him to say it, at their current level, he thought he'd win. Their Pokemon had similar training up until this point. The problem was, Leon had her outgunned and the type advantage in at least one case.

Ah, well, it wasn't worth worry about it. He grinned a bit at her mention of treats. "I can actually make some if we can find the ingredients. I've been studying up on it in preparation for this," he said. "If not, though, the Pokemart will have plenty to choose from."

'Make them? As in.. organically?' Rasca looked back at Leon with something bordering on amusement stuck on her face. He was starting to sound a bit like Yellow already. But she wanted to see if he could really make treats that the pokemon would like to eat. "Sure, what is it that you need?" She chortled for a bit, after naming several disgusting ingredients that would turn any pokemon's stomach sour, if they could understand her.

For once, she was thankful that her only language was human. It would have been too confusing for her to know two dialects anyhow, not that she couldn't have handled it. Someone had to be the smarter one of the group, and it was nice to know that Leon had that shot. But once they got to Pewter city, and perhaps even beyond it, she could hone her fierce power into finding a third pokemon. 'Poison, ground/poison, ...dark/ghost? DRAGON?!' Dragon type of pokemon definitely appealed to her, as it probably did to anyone, but going for ghost was probably more realistic. She nodded, deciding that a ghost pokemon was the next type to enter her party.

Leon thought over the ingredients for a moment before he offered a shrug. "Mostly different types of herbs that are supposed to add flavor," he explained. "For our Nidorans, poisonous plants won't be an issue, considering their types. To make snacks for all of them, though, I'd probably have to visit the Pokemart. Each Pokemon has different tastes so I'd have to figure things out and see what they'd like to have." He smiled a bit. "Guess we'll have to wait on it until we reach Pewter City." He glanced over at her and noticed that she seemed distracted. Shrugging again, he turned back to the path ahead of them. They weren't far out now. The forest was starting to thin. That meant they were approaching the city.

"So we could feed the Nidoran's poison ivy? Wow. I might start rubbing poison oak on Superior, maybe his stats will go up." The aforementioned pokemon lifted up his head, and gave her a dirty look before going back to sleep once more. Hearing his own name and seeing the look on her face had been enough for him to nudge at his trainer roughly. But then she might just drop him in surprise. That wouldn't fair well for him. Rasca assumed she had won some sort of mind battle against Superior, so she gave him a more comfortable sleeping position.

A sense of encouragement filled Rasca when they seemed to be getting closer to the new city. The forest had lost it's sense of adventure for her, so she was glad to be rid of the place. Not to mention it reminded her of how far they had come. It would be interesting to see things that Rasca could think about doing with him. 'Battling for sure. But when?' She watched him for a bit, and enjoyed the quiet space walking.

Leon laughed at that thought. "I don't think it works that way," he replied. "Poison won't effect him as easily, but it's not like it'll automatically make him better." He put his hands behind his head, thinking it over for a few moments. "Though, I have heard of specific items that could help a Pokemon out. Sunglasses that prevent loss of accuracy from attacks like Sand Attack. Charcoal that'll boost a Pokemon's flame attacks. Stuff like that. It might be interesting to look into, but we'd need to go to a specialty store to find those. Almost positive they'd be more expensive too." He offered a shrug. He knew the one in Celadon carried a few, but it was still a matter of actually getting funds for them. Either way, they'd have to wait a while for that possibility.

As the group was reaching the edge of the forest, he grinned. The trees dropped away to a cliff side, facing down towards a small city. It wasn't gigantic, but it was bigger than Pallet Town had been. It rivaled Viridian City in size. The most notable feature was, however, the large boulders strewn along the sides of the road. "Unfortunately, we won't find that fantastic of items here. Pewter City's primary export is rocks and gems." He smiled a bit, looking around. "I might want to take a look at the museum while we're here. Haven't had the chance to really see it before in anything more than pictures."

Handling Superior carefully, Rasca snapped her fingers lightly. As if rubbing poison ivy on him was the next great objective on her list of pokemon help. She brightened up considerably when Leon mentioned sunglasses. He must have mentioned that one on purpose, to make her previous attempts more valid. Yes. That was exactly why he brought that up. She snorted, and gave a smile away to her pokemon. Her whispered words barely lifted above audible, as she spoke to Superior. "Told you shades were a good idea. While you sleep, dream of wearing shades the next time you battle. No sand will get in your eyes. That's for sure." A sigh escaped her mouth just as another question bubbled from her lips. But it did not come out, instead she kept it to herself. 'Wonder how we're supposed to get money. Neither one of us are exactly rolling in dough.'

Rasca shifted both pokemon, as her leg swung back and then forwards into the boulder. She didn't put any strength in it, as she didn't want it to hurt. It was more of a pathetic attempt to show her to contempt for the huge rocks. "Stupid rocks." She muttered. Her face shifted from a slightly bored one, to her more normal attitude when talking with Leon. "We could go now, it's not like we're in a hurry or anything. "

Leon scratched the back of his head. "I don't know if you'd find it all that interesting," he said. "It's just a bunch of fossils and stuff. It interests me, but..." He shrugged, unsure if she would actually like it. She wasn't as interested in history or the older Pokemon as he was. He figured it would just bore her if they went to the museum together. "If you wanted to meet up later, we could. I'm sure you'd find something more entertaining to take care of. Trainers frequent this area so I'm sure you could find a battle or two. Of course, there's also the gym, if you think you're ready for it." He smiled sheepishly, seeing if she would rather do something else.

Ready was not the word she would have used to describe herself when it came to gym battling. More like, unprepared. But since Leon wanted to go yawn at his boring dirt pokemon, Rasca decided it was high time she tailed it to the poke mart. There was always cool things to buy there. Of course window shopping was probably more appropriate at this point. She might even be lucky enough to come across some old person who would be willing to pay a kid to do some meager chores. Her pokemon could help out as well. "Sure, you go your way, and i'll go scope out the locals." She went about preparing to wake up her pokemon from their nap, and waved Leon off so he could do his own museum thing.

Leon patted her shoulder lightly with a grin. “Well, if you can, hold up on facing Brock until I come back. I kind of want to see it,” he said before heading off on his own. He hadn't really thought she would enjoy the museum. It was rather boring to most, but he enjoyed looking at the various fossils and delving into the history behind the Pokemon.

So, he did, his Pokemon following behind him. He left his Pokemon out, letting them trail behind him as they looked at the exhibits as well. It was quite an interesting exhibit, seeing the various fossilized Pokemon like Kabuto and Omynite. Even the fearsome Aerodactyl. It even had a showing of some of the legendary Pokemon. The majestic birds; Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno. The last piece was one he had heard next to nothing about. It was known as Mew, no one every truly being able to capture the little guy.

Overall, he found the entire thing enthralling. Though, as it turned out, his interesting get away wasn't to last. “They even let you have a Pokemon? Geez. The standards much have dropped in that week,” a voice commented with a sigh.

Turning around, Leon was faced with the last person he wanted to see. Someone from his childhood, a constant thorn in his side all throughout school. “...Roy,” he greeted with a small frown. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I came to check out the museum. Wouldn't you know, I find the book worm,” he said with a cocky grin, a hand brushing through his flame red hair. Green eyes locked on his sky blue before the cocky grin turned into a distasteful frown. “So, who took pity on you and gave you that sad group of Pokemon?”

This made Leon's eyes narrow in disgust at the insult. He was used to taking the bastard's comments directed at him. He wasn't getting away with an insult to his Pokemon, though. “I caught them myself. I didn't need a hand out,” he said softly. “If you think we're such a sorry sight, why not test it yourself?”

Roy raised an eyebrow, but his Pokeball came out anyway, tossing it out. “Squirtle's all I need to take you down.”

“Charmander. Let's show him our strategy,” Leon stated, choosing the least likely to win against the water type. He didn't seem worried, though, simply pushing up the glasses on his face.

"Psh. As if i'd go and beat him without you. I'm not that selfish." She shifted her attention to Leon, offering him a playfully hurt face. Rasca was up for less confrontational means of entertainment at this point. She had enough of people for a while. Not that Leon had been a pest to her, she just didn't feel like dealing with problems any longer. And that meant taking time to spend with her pokemon. As soon as they woke up.

'Was there anything about taking care of pokemon, that included waking them up before they wanted to?' Rasca wondered, almost blaming Leon for leaving just when she could think of a question that actually mattered. "Ugh! Shows how well my timing is." Her previous playfulness left and was replaced by a feeling of resignation. 'I don't need him to hold my hand for everything. I'm more than capable of doing things myself.' She stood up and faced the direction of where they had come, shaking a furious fist at where Yellow's house used to be, before they left. "And i don't need you to tell me that either, miss always a hermit!"

Instead of the mysterious colorful leader popping out of the woods to defend herself, it was none other than the girl who picked on Leon. She had a brother, but he wasn't with her at this time. It made Rasca wonder where the little twerp was. Both to her misfortune, and happiness, she would only have to deal with the sister, Terry.

"Oh, so you've taken to talking to yourself huh? I thought you left that to Mister Poke-dipweed." Terry smiled at her own genius, flicking a few leaves off of her clothes before walking towards Rasca. "Trust me Terry-fyingly ugly, Leon has ten times more intelligence than your increasingly small head." Rasca flipped her the bird and bent over slightly to rouse the pokemon from their rest. Superior merely rolled over with a grunt, while Bulbasaur rubbed his eyes with one vine.

Terry took this moment to whip out a few pokemon of her own, releasing their catches immediately. One was a water type, and the other was a diglett. "I'll beat you so badly, your pokemon won't even breathe out of their disgusting mouths. Then we'll see who's truly the terryfying one!"

Bulbasaur was the first one to wake up, he stretched and got up to see his trainer looking down at him, in a concerned manner. He peeked over her shoulder to see the fighting stance of two other pokemon, and readied himself for battle. Superior was of no help, pretending to be asleep until he was actually needed. Superior wanted to be the star of the show, and he was willing to wait just to see it happen.

"Alright prissy pants, I'll fight you. But if you lay a finger on my pokemon i drive you into the dirt faster than you can tell diglett to dig." Rasca stood behind Bulbasaur, tossing her shades off and onto his face. That would protect him for a short while.

Leon watched as his opponent's Squirtle eyed his Charmander. This was an uneven match, but he wanted to prove himself here. If nothing else, it'd shut this bastard up for once.

"Charmander! Smoke Screen!" The little lizard opened its mouth, spewing out smoke that covered the area. It was thick, Leon not even able to see a thing.

He could hear his opponent, though. The harsh laughter came immediately after that. "You think that's gonna save you from a type disadvantage?" he asked tauntingly. "Water Gun!" A burst of water shot through the smoke, the pressure of it blowing it away. It was heading directly toward his Pokemon too.

However, it wasn't Charmander. The Pokemon had switched, Oddish standing there bravely before her new trainer. The water struck her, but she shook it off easily. The look on Roy's face was priceless, making the nerdy boy smile as he pushed the glasses up on his face a bit. "Razor Leaf." The leaves shot from the small weedy stub at the top of her blue head, shooting at the turtle Pokemon quickly. It dodged some of the leaves, but the majority strike it square in the face, throwing it back with a few cuts along it now. "Absorb." Before the Squirtle could gain its barings, it felt its energy drained. It got up on all four and...collapsed, completely spent.

Roy looked furious at that. "Squirtle, return!" he roared, bringing his Pokemon back. "Let's go, Spearow!"

"You can take this one, Blaze," Leon stated, grinning at the small fire type. Charmander gave a cry of agreement, stepping forward as Oddish scurried back, returning to its Pokeball. It came at Charmander quickly, trying to Peck at him, but the small lizard was fast, jumping out of the way and returning an Ember. The scorching heat was too much for the bird, taking it down as well. "So, what was that you were gonna show me, Roy? You're never gonna beat me when it comes to Pokemon."

He could almost laugh at the look he got from Roy. He was furious to be talked down on by the nerd of his class. "Th-This was just a practice run," he growled. "I obviously need a few better Pokemon. You just got lucky. We'll settle this at the Pokemon League, if you think you can get that far."

Terry let out an unbridled horse laugh, similar sounding to what Rasca would do, if she were in a laughing mood. "Seriously, you're actually going to put human sized sunglasses on your pokemon? What a novice." Rasca grunted in reply, watching as Terry's Diglett sand attack whipped off her shades from Bulbasaur's face. It turned to glance at her, the look on it's gave was one of disgust.

Bulbasaur growled when he focused his attention back on the enemy, causing the Diglett to scurry back a few paces. While the Diglett was recovering from the growl, Rasca called out her first command. "Go for Tackle!" He did as she wanted, and with a fast enough speed to carry him forward before Diglett could attack. He head butted the other pokemon with such ferocity, that it's whole body snapped backwards. On the rebound, Terry sent out her command as well. It was obvious what her move would be, so Rasca made Bulbasaur come back away from the hole that seemed vacant.

"Sure you don't wanna run over to your stupid glasses and put em back on your dumb pokemon? I'm it'll thank you for it!" Terry jeered at her, though Rasca was undaunted. Instead of replying to her, she merely motioned for Bulbasaur to step out of the way of Diglett's next attack. However, the pokemon was confused and ending up stepping right into the pulverizing dig move that shook him to his core.

He tottered on his feet for a bit, and tried tackling again. His attack only did a minimal amount of damage though, causing Diglett to get another hit in at Bulbasaur. Soon enough he was finished off, and Rasca returned him to one of the pokeballs. "This isn't quite over yet you witch. Just wait until Superior comes up, then i'll send you packing."

Terry looked amusedly at the sleeping pokemon, and Rasca felt a hint of shame course through her. For now, her threat was merely nothing, and Terry let her feel the full blast of her scorn for the lazy Nidoran. Just as Diglett was returned back to Terry, Nidoran lept up and charged straight into her. She was taken off guard for a moment, while her water pokemon- a staryu, jumped in his path. They both collided heavily, and tumbled before returning to their trainers sides.

"Your pokemon cheated! He was just faking sleep, and you let him battle anyways." Terry crinkled her nose in distaste of Superior's ultimately bad move, especially since he had been after knocking his poisoned horn into her legs. "You won't even get the satisfaction of coming close to beating me, if i let you." She pulsed Staryu back into her pokeball, and turned on her heel, away from Rasca. "This match is over."

Once Terry had left into the city, Rasca yelled out, "Hopefully you get that water stone out of your butt long enough to evolve it! Otherwise you'd have lost dearly!" She sighed heavily and leaned against a boulder for support. Superior waddled over to her with a proud look on his face, which melted away once Rasca glared at him. "You should have waited for me to call you out. Now look what you did!" Dejected, she pulled out a second pokeball and pulled him in as well. His features were almost forlorn looking to her, but she ignored it.

"Time to go to that item shop, and get Bulbasaur healed up."