Matador

Pokemon Chrome

Amalgam--->Road to Damascus

@Floodtalon

"Your name's Tirtouga, huh?" Leo asked the newest member of his party. He got down on one knee to pet the creature's head, but it's neck shied away into its shell before he could make contact. Not the most outgoing little thing out there, was it? Fair enough, it had been revived after what could have been thousands upon millions of years into the past. The new civilization and technology all around the world would take a bit of time to get used to. According to a brief scan by Leo's pokedex after the Tirtouga was gifted to him, it was actually a girl.

"Well, Toga sounds like a good enough nickname. How about it?" Toga responded neither positively nor particularly disagreeably. "Guess I'll take that as a yes." Leo said with a sigh, returning the pokemon to its ball. He wished he could connect to some of his new companions at least slightly better. Maybe in the near future he would be able to understand them more. Now certainly wasn't that time.

Leo left Amalgam with awe written on his face. From visiting one town alone, he had managed to make such vivid memories. That, to him, was amazing. He secretly hoped that something similar would happen at his next destination, Damascus. He had read in a brochure that Damascus was home to a gym. Now that he had such a large party on his hands, he felt more comfortable taking on a gym. It would be tough. All he could do was hope for the best.

With that, Leo set out on the path to his target, Bee sleeping peacefully on his head.

Pokemon Chrome

So who here is going to the Reserve?

@Sho Minazuki

This guy

Pokemon Chrome

@Alexfangtalon@I-Am-X@Floodtalon@Sho Minazuki@Lord Szall@Broyeabro

Amalgam University

Leo sighed in relief as he watched Team Arclight's retreat. He turned to the revival machine, sighing in relief. It was okay. He had done his job alright. He wasn't a failure.

"Gira, good work. Get some rest." A red light enveloped the long-necked Girafarig and it returned to its Pokeball. He hadn't noticed it while they were battling, but his heart was pumping something fierce after all that commotion. Well, all's well that ends well, he supposed.

"Are you all okay?" He turned to several of the other trainers as he returned to the group of people originally spectating the event. Just then, the old man who had intervened to fight the fearsome trainer and his Metagross came to greet them. He had to admit, it was embarrassing to be praised for bravery, even if said praise wasn't directed towards him personally.

More interesting still, he was actually being offered one of the pokemon set to be revived during a later demonstration. He found it odd that they would even consider continuing the revivals after what had just happened. He would be a liar if he said the prospect of getting an ancient pokemon didn't excite him, however. Well, it sounded like they had a lot of time to spare until those actually happened. There was something important he had to do beforehand...

-----

"How do you feel, Nado?" Leo looked at his downtrodden Gible with kind eyes. He pet the Gible on the head, despite the rough marks such physical contact left on his skin. "C'mon, don't feel bad...this one's on me, not you. If I had the attack earlier, maybe you wouldn't have..."

Nado continued staring at the floor. His words were falling on deaf ears, evidently. With a sigh, Leo returned his companion to its pokeball. He had made it a point to heal his pokemon up at a nearby center on campus before claiming his fossil pokemon. That was the first thing he wanted to do, the second?

Leo walked up towards a nearby phone booth and dialed his house number. It was a bit later in Sinnoh than it was in Chromis, so he was positive that everyone was in the house right about now.

Family Convo

"Hello?" He greeted.

"Oh, Leo, it's you!" He heard a faint shushing sound come from the background soon after his first youngest brother picked up the phone. "Uh...now's not really a good time for talking."

"What do you mean, John? It's been like a day or two since we talked. Where's mom?"

"She's outta the house. Said she was gonna work a little longer today."

"Oh...let her know that I'll be sending some reward money her way, okay? Doesn't matter how much money I make out here if she's still working herself to death."

"Will do! Bye!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" His voice was starting to grow to an alarmingly high volume. "Where're Travis and Lily? I want to say hi."

"They're busy!"

"With what?"

"Shinx!" He heard the cry of a pokemon loud and clear.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

"John," his voice did a complete 180, he sounded just about ready to kill the boy, "are you battling inside the house again?"

"Bye!" With that, the conversation was brought to a halt. Ugh, what was he gonna do with those kids?

Later on in the day, Leo returned to the university and noted that a good portion of the fossils had already undergone the revival process. One pokemon in particular had just been resurrected. It was a turtle-like pokemon, a water type, if he had to guess. But who needed guessing with a working pokedex?

"Tirtouga: The Prototurtle Pokemon. Restored from a fossil, this Pokémon can dive to depths beyond half a mile. About 100 million years ago, these Pokémon swam in oceans. It is thought they also went on land to attack prey." Interesting...

Soon after, Leo would claim the mon as his own and be gifted it along with its pokeball.

Pokemon Chrome

Amalgam University

@floodtalon

Battle!

Arclight Grunt Wants to Battle!

The Arclient Grunts split up and Leo followed one of them to a less chaotic area. The grunt threw out a Pokeball and released Bergmite to combat the Gible.

"Keep an eye on it, Gira." Before following the grunt, Leo made sure to leave Gira and Frig behind to watch over the machine while they had their battle. Nothing could get past those two!

Leo could tell that the opposing pokemon was an ice type, no pokedex necessary. They'd have to end this one quick.

"Nado, Sand Attack!" Nado dug his fingers into the ground and launched sand right at the Bergmite's face. Where the sand came from...he wasn't sure.

The sand used in the Sand-Attack was actually splinters of wood, which was especially irritating to the eyes as Bergmite quickly found out. It threw out a blast of Icy Wind in response, but it would likely miss if Gible even tried to dodge.

"Nado, dodge." Leo was awfully calm as he commanded his partner. Almost as if he no longer saw the Bergmite as a threat. Nado dodged with no issue and seemed surprised that it could be that easy.

"Dragon Rage." A blue fire formed in Nado's mouth and shot out at the Bergmite with great speed.

The Dragon Rage hit spot on, a cloud of dust obscuring whether or not the Bergmite had fainted. The dust began to settle when it suddenly all blew away as the Bergmite released one last blast of Icy Wind before fainting. The grunt recalled Bergmite and sent out Magnemite to follow up.

"Nado!" The Icy Wind had come out of nowhere and caught the Gible by surprise. It was a far too effective move for the Gible to endure. Nado was down and Leo was forced to return him to his pokeball.

"You did good, Nado. Get some rest." With that, Leo's next move was to send out his Croagunk.

"Croagunk, Taunt!" The Croagunk turned around and smacked its rear as an appropriate taunt to stop the enemy from using anything other than attacking moves. It was a simple precaution against Thunder Wave.

The Magnemite narrowed it's eye and visibly got angrier as it released a strange Sonic Boom at Croagunk.

The Sonic Boom hit the Croagunk dead on and caused it to cry out in pain. Its eyes squinted in anger.

"Mud Slap!" The Croagunk slid its hands across the ground and threw mud at the Magnemite. The mud, again, coming from some unknown area. Hopefully, it would hit and lower the accuracy of the opponent.

The Mud Slap hit quite hard actually, but Magnemite survived because of how Sturdy it was, ready for one more attack. The grunt recognized it's accuracy was lowered so he ordered it to use Magnet Bomb, which couldn't miss at all.

The Croagunk barely held on after taking the Magnet Bomb, but could still fight on to deliver one last move. One more move would finish it off.

"One last time, Mud Slap!" Exerting all of its energy, Croagunk launched another stream of mud at the Magnemite.

The Magnemite fainted as well, falling to the ground with a heavy thud. The Arclight Grunt returned the Pokemon to its ball and ran away swiftly, quickly lost in the confusion.

"Gira!" Leo returned Croagunk to his pokeball and rushed back to the Girafarig. His hard thumping heart was put at ease when he saw that both it and the Fossil Machine were in tip top shape. Although, he noticed a few astounded glances from students and invaders alike over the absurd length of its neck.

Croagunk was nearly collapsed. Nado was down for the count. Gira was busy guarding the Fossil Machine. All he had left to really use was Bee. He sent her out with a launch of her pokeball. Bee came out with an extra determined version of her usual cry while Leo looked around for any signs of grunts trying to move in on the Fossil Machine.

Pokemon Chrome

@floodtalon

Leo watched intently as the old man came out to explain the innovations behind their latest machine. It was a fossil reviver that could allegedly work in an instant. This got Leo curious for many reasons, namely the anticipation of seeing what kind of pokemon would emerge from the Jaw Fossil. It was especially interesting to him because of his home town. Oreburgh City was the only other place he knew of that actually did fossil revivals and they lasted awhile, to his knowledge, at least.

His mind was completely blown when the Tyrunt appeared in the blink of an eye. Having never seen the pokemon before, Leo swiftly reached out to his pocket to pull out his pokedex. An electronic voice would give him another small description of the new encounter.

"Tyrunt: The Royal Heir Pokemon. Its immense jaws have enough destructive force that it can chew up an automobile. It lived 100 million years ago." That was...to the point. Basically, the creature was a tiny mon of immense destruction. Even after returning him to his pokeball for the event, Leo could just feel Nado shaking with anticipation at the thought of fighting that thing. Hm, maybe they'd get their chance one day.

The next fossil's revival was interrupted by the sound of rock music blaring outside the doors. With each passing second, it grew louder. Leo's immediate first thought was to wonder why the hell anyone would play music that loud during such an obviously important event. His next was to begrudgingly admit to himself that it actually sounded pretty good...but still! The ever increasing volume made him kind of nervous.

The door was slammed down and Leo immediately enlarged a pokeball to throw at any time. He felt that it should have been obvious to anyone with eyes that these weren't ordinary musicians. This suspicion was confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt when the blue haired man said he'd need to "borrow" it for awhile. Eager to battle, Leo was almost the first to bring out a pokemon to combat him, but he froze up at the last second. Metagross...a fully evolved pokemon. There was no way he could do anything to even dent that thing. It was shameful to admit, but he was outclassed entirely.

"Nado, come out!" The Gible launched out of its ball and landed on its feet, a fierce expression once again replacing its usually carefree eyes. He wasn't taking down a Metagross any time soon, but he was confident that the grunts would be no problem. Leo paid special mind to the fact that he would be one move short during the fiasco. For all he knew, a Sandstorm could be the perfect diversion they needed to take off with the fossil machine.

"Hold it right there!" Leo intercepted the three grunts aiming for the machine. He was outnumbered, which was bad, but he at least had three other mons to choose from if he needed to take them all on at the same time.

Pokemon Chrome

Leo

Location: Route 9
Group: @Sho Minazuki@Amaterasu
GM: @floodtalon

---

Amalgam!

Training

"Alright, guys, come on out!"

Leo threw three of his pokeballs into the air and out came the rest of his party members. First order of business? Leo threw one poffin each to Bee and Croagunk. The former got hers as a reward for the battle against the one oddly polite thug and his girlfriend; the latter got his after he had fought long and hard for a decent meal. With that out of the way, Leo set his training schedule into motion.

"Nado! You'll be facing off against Gira and Frig for some speed practice! Nado can do the attacking and Frig can do the dodging. Bee, you'll be practicing with Croagunk for the same kind of training. Keep him on his toes with Vine Whip." Leo tossed his coat and hat to the floor, stretching his body before laying himself down on the floor. "I'll be doing my usual 100 push ups, sit ups, and jogging until you guys are done." It was a painful, terrible exercise routine his father had given him. A trainer couldn't just stand by while their pokemon did all the work for them. While he had gotten sorta used to it, the work out left him half dead every time.

Leo pushed his body upward with his arms and gave everyone a moment of silence to collect themselves before suddenly shouting out, "Begin!"

Nado leapt left and right as he began his attack on the Girafarig. He rushed him down with Take Down after Take Down and his opponent seemed to dodge each and every one of them with ease. Feeling that his pride was on the line, Nado launched out multiple Dragon Rages from his mouth. He could feel the Girafarig's fear as it struggled to avoid them all with well timed movements, but managed to do it all the same.

"25...26...27..." Leo was about a quarter of the way done with his push ups.

Bee's training session with Croagunk was just as intense. Vine Whip after Vine Whip struck at the Croagunk's feet until it seemed almost as if they were playing a game jump rope from all the hopping that occurred. This continued for a while until Leo reached his 100th push up. Somewhat out of breath and with sweat covering every last inch of his torso, Leo called out another command.

"Switch!" And he went right to doing his 100 set of sit ups.

All but Nado seemed confused by his command, but they quickly caught on when the little dragon went on the defensive.

Gira put his head down to the floor and scraped the ground with his front leg, almost as a bull would to an opponent. Nado waited in anticipation with cold, hard eyes. Without warning, Gira charged at him with a Tackle. Because of the wide gap in their speed, Nado could only barely manage to dodge Gira's attack. He had even gotten attacked when the Girafarig swerved its neck to the side in a successful attempt to do some damage, although, it still did quite a bit to the Long Neck pokemon on account of Nado's Rough Skin.

"50......51.......52........" Leo really did look half dead during the exercise, but pressed on like a machine.

Croagunk launched needles from the palms of its hands using Poison Sting. Bee could only just keep up with each and every one of them as she floated from side to side, making sure that her flower remained unharmed from their training.

By this point, Leo had already moved on to his jogging and boy did he look in horrible shape. He mumbled under his breath, but his words were unintelligible. What many people would not know was that he was reciting his own personal mantra.

"Pain is just weakness leaving the body... Pain is just weakness leaving the body..."

By the time their training was finished, all five of them seemed like they were on the verge of death. They all collapsed together on the floor and formed a giant pile of sweat and tears. It hurt. A lot. Leo was certain that this training would be good for them in the long run. He hoped so from the bottom of his heart. His everything was killing him right now!

"We made it." Leo looked around the university with an alien sort of feeling looming over him. There weren't exactly too many universities back in Sinnoh--not that he knew of, anyway. At most, he had seen schools for young, trainers to be, but never once saw a full blown university in the flesh. Or...would in the bricks be the right term? Okay, in the (insert substance here) didn't exactly have the same ring to it, but it'd do, he guessed. He looked down at Nado, who was following right behind him as per usual. "Don't make a scene around here, understood? Or else there'll be zero poffins for a week!"

Words could not express the fear that flared in the Gible's eyes. He quickly stood on his toes and closed his eyes to give himself a calm, sophisticated kind of look...which failed when his toes tipped a bit too much and ended up with him face down on the floor.

Leo rolled his eyes. He picked up the Gible by its tiny arms and then continued his way to the university itself. When he arrived, the main halls were somewhat populated by numerous students and a small handful of professors scurrying from place to place. One had even struck up a conversation with he had noticed how young Leo was. While the conversation was mainly him telling him about the glorious open doors that a formal education could provide (barf), he had dropped mention of some sort of fossil resurrection that was going on soon, which really piqued his interest.

He politely said goodbye and made his way to the lab. On his way there, he saw three people. One of them stood around as the other two picked up books scattered around the floor.

"Need a hand?" Leo knelt down on the floor to pick up the books along with them, although most of them were already accounted for by that point. The young trainer paused for a moment as he looked from York to Talonite. "Oh, it's...you two." While he didn't mean to sound unenthusiastic about the idea, one could be forgiven if they mistaken believed it to be the case. He was more taken aback by seeing them again so soon.

Pokemon Chrome

Leo

Location: Route 9
Group: @Lord Szall@1Charak2@alexfangtalon@ZachChase
GM: @floodtalon

---

A Wild Croagunk Appeared!

The Croagunk laughed as Leo faced off with it, then stopped laughing as Leo sent out the large Girafarig. Evidently he was going to take this seriously if he wanted to eat today.

Battle!

The Croagunk dashed towards Girafarig and clapped his hands together in front of it, releasing a shockwave of air and stopping whatever attack it was going to do. ANY expert would recognize this as a masterful Fake Out.

"Fake Out? Weird..." Leo had never known it possible for a Croagunk to learn the move. At least, he had never seen them use it in all his time watching old, Sinnoh league battles. Was it different from other regular Croagunks somehow. "Well, you're showing a lot of potential already. How about a treat, little buddy?"

Leo held a poffin up high, its delicious aroma permeating through the air. It was the same tasty sort of poffin he had been rewarding Bee moments earlier. He aimed and threw the poffin, much like he would a pokeball, and it landed right on top of the wild Croagunk's head.

Gira turned its body around the frog was now facing Frig. The tail sniffed the air for a bit, only to then lunge out to bite the poffin for itself. Unfortunately for the Croagunk, this would mean that its head was now being bitten by a VERY hungry tail. It might not have had much of a brain, but Frig had one nonetheless.

Gira was a bit shocked to do anything else substantial, so he merely stayed in place.

The Croagunk was distracted by the puffin as it happily reached up for it, but was quickly reminded this was a battle and that not everything was as it seemed. The moment it was bitten by the back tail it began freaking out and slapping the tail lightly. It got itself together as it tried to use Poison Sting to get the thing to let go.

"Gira, confusion!" Using the backwards vision granted to it by its tail, Gira used confusion as a counterattack the moment it saw Croagunk ready its attack, using its superior speed to pull the feat off. The Croagunk would be pushed back and released from Frig's bite, but not without taking substantial damage from Gira's attack. Neither poison nor fighting meshed well with psychic, but it was even worse when you meshed both of their properties together.

The Croagunk went tumbling back and took a few seconds to get up. It shook it's head then rushed to the Girafarig's left in an intense burst of speed, but it was a Feint Attack as it appeared from the right and struck Girafarig directly. It was an unavoidable attack as the Croagunk's hand connected with Girafarig.

"Ah!" Leo exclaimed in surprised. For it to survive such a powerful blow, that Croagunk had to be something special. Did it just have more battle experience or something? Nonetheless, it was surprising, but Leo doubted that he'd need to take much longer to finish the battle. He just hoped that Gira would be able to hold out...

"Hold on there, Gira! He can't possibly hang on for much longer, hit him with a Tackle!" The Girafarig grit its teeth, lowered its head, and charged right at the Croagunk's body.

The Croagunk couldn't take another hard hit like that, so when the Tackle connected it immediately fainted. His body flew through the air and hit the ground hard, the only moving being it's unconscious breathing.

"Good one!" Leo took out a pokeball and enlarged it, throwing it at the fainted pokemon. A red light came from it and sucked the Croagunk in. Three shakes and it was caught.

"Gira, you did well out there, great work!" Leo pet the Girafarig's back affectionately, though it refused to look him in the eyes and did its best to pretend as if he hardly noticed Leo's actions. "Have a good rest, all right?" With a flash of red, Gira was returned to his ball.

"We've got a lot of new friends, huh, Nado?" The Gible stayed silent, frowning. "What's with the face? Oh, I see. You haven't been able to battle as much now that we've got more teammates, right? Tell you what, I promise you'll be the first one next time we fight a trainer. How's that sound?"

"Gible!" Leo grinned at Nado's change in attitude.

"It's a deal, then. Now c'mon, we might as well just head to Amalgam at this rate. Stay close!"

With that, the two made their way to the university.

Pokemon Chrome

Route 9

GM: @floodtalon

"Is that a..." Leo stopped for a second and just stared wide eyed at the Croagunk. Nado stopped at the same time, giving a similar expression. It was a Croagunk; a Pokemon native to the Sinnoh region. Admittedly, he had a soft spot for the creature based on its familiarity alone. One way or the other, he wanted it as a member of his team. Leo tossed out a Pokeball and out came Gira.

"I know a lot about you guys even without my dex. You'll do anything to survive even if it means fighting dirty, right? If you want food that badly, come and get it!"

Pokemon Chrome

Route 9

@floodtalon@1Charak2@alexfangtalon@ZachChase

"Oh? Um, take care, then." Leo tilted his head in confusion. What a peculiar guy. Still, he hoped that they could meet each other once again. They had managed to secure the victory together this time, but he honestly wanted to test the guy's strength on his own one day. He guessed that the eccentric man was likely collecting badges like he was. Maybe they would spot each other in the next town? Or even the league?

Leo then turned to Bee once more. Such an amazing victory was only to be rewarded with the highest quality reward! Leo shoved a hand into his pants' pocket and pulled out what was clearly a green poffin.

"C'mon. You've earned it."

"Be!" The pokemon replied in appreciation, wrapping its vines around the snack to start chowing down. The smell was delicious and quickly attracted the attention of the pokemon in the surrounding area. Their silhouettes appeared hidden in the trees and Leo immediately knew that he wanted nothing to do with them. If he fed them a single poffin, they would probably follow him around until every last one of them was fed and he had neither the time nor resources to do such a thing.

In a rare move, he returned both Gira and Bee into their pokeballs, leaving only Nado out and about. It looked like this was the part where he split up with everyone. That was...a bummer.

"Nado! Run!" The little dragon was strutting towards the wild pokemon, ready for a battle, only for its trainer to grab him with his forearms and dash. "Ugh...Nado, I'm putting you on a serious diet, know that?!"

Pokemon Chrome

@Lord Szall@1Charak2@alexfangtalon@ZachChase@floodtalon

"Huh? Oh, right, the clothes are kind of a dead give away, aren't they?" Leo raised both of his arms into the air for emphasis and looked down at his coat. It was actually a hand-me-down from his father and he was hoping he could get a more fitting outfit once he got some more cash to spare. His hat sort of made him feel like a burning poffin sometimes. "But Kalos, huh? Never woulda of guessed it. I think I've heard of Sycamore before...um, he studied mega evolution right?" He wondered if that Squirtle of his had one. It would make sense given the professor. What kind of monster of a pokemon would that thing turn into?

"Oh, this is Chance, by the way. We're traveling together for the time being." He glanced over the boy and his small team of pokemon. He had been sort of late to the party all things considered. "If you'd like, I could introduce you to everyone else.