Ted wrinkled his nose slightly. The middle-aged man was standing on the very edge of the lake's bank on the western side of Cherrygrove. The tips of his shoes dangled over the muddy bed, hovering in the air. A stranger could easily walk by and push him in, but Ted didn't think they would do that. His only Pokemon, the "L" Unown, which he kept inside a Premier Ball he'd gotten for free when buying groceries, was somewhere off behind him hiding in a bush. The Unown, whenever it wasn't flying, preferred to rest by holding its bottom limb flat against the ground, and would occasionally hop along like this rather than walking. Ted wasn't sure why it was hiding in the bushes. But it was. Ted was staring out into the lake, observing how, despite the lake looking like it was quite large, a series of rocks created an impenetrable wall that made crossing the boundary of the quartered-off section of the lake impossible.
Ted breathed in deeply. He was in Cherrygrove City. There wasn't much to do here. The town had three houses. And they all had sunroofs. But they were all placed in different positions on the house. The three-house town seemed to have quite a large economy though, so much so that there seemed to be a need for both a Pokemart and center. But Ted didn't bother with economic concerns. He was looking at the lake. And the Unown was hiding in the bush. And Ted was unaware as to why. Across the water from where Ted stood, he could see a small dune in the middle of the lake. Ted wondered how this dune was formed. Occasionally, as he stood and watched, he would see trainers get on top of Pokemon and swim over to the dune. He briefly wondered why they would never just swim there themselves. This train of though, however, ended shortly afterwards, when Ted realized that, despite wanting to get onto that Dune, he himself had no intention of swimming there. His Unown wouldn't be of much help. It was hiding in the bush somewhere behind him, though Ted wasn't sure why. But the Unown was only about a foot tall, and even if it could lift him, Ted wasn't sure he'd be able to hold on very long.
There were lots of trees around here. All placed very close together. On the other side of town, there was another lake, though that one was significantly smaller. Ted noticed when he had passed by it before that, for some reason, you could see a visual divide in the lake. On one side, you could see the jelly-like outline of Tentacool shimmying along through the water, but only on that one side. A straight line dividing the lake in two marked their boundaries. On the other side, packs of Poliwags swam back and forth, occasionally coming up to the surface for air. It was like the pond had achieved coexistence through segregation. This notion made Ted feel uneasy, but he wasn't sure as to why. Did the Unown have eyelids? That thought suddenly struck Ted. And he felt a desperate need to find out the answer immediately. He turned around and rushed over to the bush. His Unown was hiding beneath it.
Yeah, they have eyelids. Why wouldn't they? Ted nodded his head, and the Unown hopped forward a bit. With a knowing look to each other, they both began heading towards the Pokemart. They stopped halfway, though, because Ted saw a person standing by the Pokemart's door. He wanted to avoid that. So he turned sharply to the left, exiting Cherrygrove City, and causing L to briefly falter and tumble onto his side before correcting himself and catching up. Ted wondered why he even was thinking about Unown Eyelids in the first place.
My only goal in life is to ensure that Mousa dies of a stress-induced heart attack by the age of 23. READ THISWhitney grinned and pointed, "Okay, Cleffy, one more time! Metronome!" the clefairy wiggle it's fingers and glowed. It raised it's paws in the air and the glow diffused around it, and then it fainted, "Wu-what?" Whitney looked like she was going to cry.
"I am never, ever having a pokemon with Metronome. Ever. It just used Healing Wish, what the hell?" Lillian looked at he scene and frowned.
edited 6th Jun '10 5:52:28 AM by MimitheRed
Acid Rain is ruining the environment! Don't persue the dying in bad weather!Sparkles hissed, as it saw itself become surrounded by both Pokemon and trainers. It turned to Sean and simply looked at him, frowning.
Sean wasted no time in returning the vicious Pokemon to its Pokeball. He quickly turned to Athena. "I'm sorry; Sparkles is the closest thing I've ever seen to an evil Pokemon. I'm gonna put him in the box. Be right back." Motioning for Amp to join him and returning the others to their Pokeballs, he left for the Pokemon Center.
Entering the futuristic healing center, he quickly went to the PC in the upper-right corner. Accessing the storage system, he input the command to have Sparkles stored. But before he could, a voice seemed to speak in his mind.
I don't think you want to do that, Sean... whispered the voice.
I damn well do; Sparkles is a demonic bloodthirsty monster! roared Sean's own thoughts.
Monster or not, who's going to protect you when Amp goes down?
Sean froze. He had never even considered that option.
You see my point, do you not? Shroom is weak and Shroom Jr. is even weaker. Sparkles is the only one besides Amp who can hold its own against anyone.
Sean slowly signed off the PC and put Sparkles's ball back on his belt.
That's a good boy, Sean... whispered the voice, victory clearly echoing its tone.
"Evii is right though" -Saturn "I didn't know you were a bitch Evii." -Lior ValAthena was a bit spooked by the occurrence. That was one benefit of being a trainer. Badges made life so much easier when it came to having pokémon obey. She had largely been lucky in that matter. Steven had been the former champion, so he had talked to Wallace, the current champion. Wallace had formerly been the gym leader of Sootopolis city, and he talked to the current gym leader, Juan, who had helped Athena out with that obeying matter.
She returned her pokémon, and made a note to get up early and catch some of the regional pokémon.
New User HandleNathan wasn't sure what was going on, but Kotree had carried him to the Pokecentre, so he decided the Grovyle was trying to tell him to get Fuzz healed. He wasn't sure though, but figured it couldn't hurt. They could play charades later if he was wrong.
"Hello and welcome to the Cherrygrove Pokemon Centre. How may I help you today."
Nathan felt inexplicitly guilty about Jeremy not being here for his first visit to a pokemon centre. He mentally shrugged and tried to pretend he knew what he was doing.
"I'd like my Mareep checked up, please." He said as he put Fuzz's pokeball on the counter.
"Certainly," the nurse put the pokeball in a cradle in front of her computer, "He's lightly poisoned and a little worn out. I'll take him out back, and he should be right as rain in twenty minutes or so."
"Thank you."
The nurse noticed his hesitation, "The waiting area's over there, and the TV is currently showing Gym Watch. Just ask if you want to watch something else."
Nathan shrugged, and plonked down in the waiting area. He didn't have much else to do.
"And now we cross to Goldenrod Gym where a trainer has set a very unorthodox challenge..."
As Nathan watched he didn't notice Sean come in. Kotree did.
Jeremy was considering tactics when he skidded into the pokemon centre, just missing breaking his nose on the glass. He knew from bitter experience that Sableye had no type weaknesses, and Sparkles was large enough that most of his pokemon didn't really have the size advantage they'd normally have.
As such he was preoccupied when he cued up for the PC.
"Vy gro." Kotree said from his shoulder.
"Yes, I'm getting the others," Jeremy replied off-handedly, "Wait. Shouldn't you be with Rona?"
"Grov," he answered, pointed at Nathan in the waiting room and Sean who Jeremy just noticed was the one using the PC. Or not, as he didn't press the button. Guess he deposited Sparkles
Since the scary monster problem seemed to have been dealt with, Jeremy slipped out of the line. He didn't really need the others, not yet anyway.
He sat down next to Nathan, "What are you doing here?"
Nathan didn't look away from the TV, where a man was fighting a milktank?, "Kotree brought me here, so I'm getting Fuzz healed up."
"Okay, you stay here, I'm going to go back a get Rona."
Rona meanwhile looked at the congregation, now sans her master and the monster that scared him off. She lay back down on the ground.
"<So now what?>"
You must agree, my plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity! My TumblrAthena was all alone now. She had strayed to the outskirts of the city. Time to do what she did best. Catch pokémon.
Pidgey, Rattata some were pretty generic and had either been caught in Hoenn or Kanto.
Never saw a sentret though. She and Shiftry were making good time, since Shiftry knew a handy move called False Swipe.
With Sentret in the pokéball, Athena motioned to the trees.
"Scour 'em, Shiftry".
And soon afterwards, a Hoothoot, Ledyba, a Spinarak, an Exeggcute and a Pineco were caught and registered.
Today was a good day.
She traveled north, and repeated the process.
Geodude, Rattata, Spearow. Why was Geodude always everywhere?
She motioned for Shiftry to search the trees again. This resulted much more favorably.
Aipom and Heracross were soon added to her pokédex roster.
"Ok, that's enough Shiftry." Athena said as Shiftry KO'd another ekans. "Lets head back, I don't think we're gonna get anything else out of here."
Shiftry nodded and returned to its pokéball. Athena headed back into Cherrygrove, and searched for the Pokémon Center.
With a little help from Yanmega, she found it, and entered, prepared to rest.
edited 1st Jun '10 2:55:16 PM by A_H_R
New User HandleLillian watched as the sobbing Whitney handed the young girl her badge.
"She seriously has bad luck," she said to Clive, "Well, now where are you headed? North has ghosts, east has birds, and south has bugs. If you go north then west then you get steel," she looks at him, "We're still traveling together, right?"
"<Aren't we, Uncles Magnet and Tenty?>" Coco asked as cutely as possible.
"<Sure.>" both Pokemon replied. D'aww. She -was- kinda cute.
"Well, Steel isn't gonna do well by me. I mean, if I actually did Pokemon battles, I'd go there, because with Magneton I have a clear advantage. Ghost basically isn't even worth trying, I think...I'm not sure. I could try Flying...maybe I'll have better luck here. Bugs, too. I don't know. Which one'd you like to visit?"
edited 1st Jun '10 3:03:39 PM by MisterAlways
Always touching and looking. Piss off.Lillian shrugged and petted Coco on the head, "I don't really care, I've never been to Johto before, so it would be all new to me. I might be able to beat the ghost gym with Glitzy, so I'd like to try that, but all in all I'm just going to follow you, since you seem to have an actual goal."
"<Huu... Ghost types and Normal types are immune to each other, right?>"
"So, north then," Lillian said, then giggled, "I heard the Gym Leader is really cute. I wonder what he is like?" she said as she started walking out of the gym. She looked at the sky then turned to Clive, "It's getting a bit late, should we find a place to sleep tonight?"
Acid Rain is ruining the environment! Don't persue the dying in bad weather!"Bah, fine, we'll stay at the Poke Center," Lillian looks back up at the setting sun, "Eeeh... I wanted to check out the Game Corner, too..."
Acid Rain is ruining the environment! Don't persue the dying in bad weather!As Jeremy left the pokemon centre, he saw Low happily perched on a street light.
"Do want to stay out for a bit?"
"Swell!" she trilled.
"Okay, have fun, I'll be back soon."
On his way back to where he'd left Rona, he passed Athena but she was too engrossed in her pokedex to notice him.
He found Rona lying on the ground, apparently asleep.
"Wake up, Rona." Jeremy said while lightly tickling her through one of the holes in her armour.
"Lair, lair, lair, lair!" She giggled as she squirmed, "Ron!"
"Now, do you want to walk to the pokemon centre?"
"Ron," she answered shaking her head.
Jeremy returned her, took a bemused looking Jack by the hand and walked back to the pokemon centre. Maybe the group dinner would help patch things up. Again.
edited 1st Jun '10 4:00:41 PM by Luthen
You must agree, my plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity! My Tumblr"Mmm... yeah..." heads to teh casino, "Is over here~" stops infront of a big building with a big flashing sign saying 'Game Corner', "This is the place! Been in one before?"
"<I love the machines with the spinny things! Mommy get happy when they match!>"
Athena looked up, and saw that Jeremy had returned. She shot up, and ran over to him.
"You know, catching pokémon to better our knowledge of them is still much better than making them fight each other so you can get a stupid badge!"
She promptly turned around, and ran away from him, heading towards the phones.
New User HandleJeremy looked at Athena's retreating head, flabbergasted. What? If I just wanted to get the stupid badges I'd have collected the full set already. He looked back on what he'd said before they got to Cherrygrove and mentally winced. He hadn't actually said what he did for Prof Birch, just what was doing right now. He shrugged, she looked too angry at the moment to explain things to her. But her heading towards the phones reminded him that he had some calls to make himself.
But first, to find his cousin. Who was still watching the TV. As he arrived, Kotree leapt from the back of Nathan's chair to Jeremy's shoulder. "You know you're getting too big for this."
"Gro" replied the piggybacking Grovyle.
"Nathan, Fuzz healed yet?"
"Don't know, let's go check, this battle isn't very interesting."
They retrieved a much more energetic Mareep and Jeremy directed them to the phones. He was careful to sit them as far from Athena as possible. After a short call to his Nathan's parents, Jeremy decided he should probably update Prof Birch. Prof Elm should have told him, but he was infamous for forgetting things. Oddly the Prof was on another call, so Jeremy just left a message with one of the aides.
Last on his list was his own family. He dialled the number and it rang a few times before his mum appeared on the screen.
"Oh, hi Jeremy and Nathan! Is that the Fuzz I've been hearing so much about?"
After a short, mostly one-sided, conversation - he'd called while she was making dinner - she called his other pokemon over to say hi. Jeremy introduced Nathan to the rest and promised he'd transfer some over to him in a couple of days.
He deposited Nathan back at the TV, which was now showing contests. Guessing that it wouldn't hold Nathan's attention for long, he left Kotree as chaperone and went off to check about rooms for the night.
edited 1st Jun '10 4:49:34 PM by Luthen
You must agree, my plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity! My Tumblr"Hey, Professor Birch? You there?"
"Oh, hello Athena!"
Athena breathed a sigh of relief. It appeared SOMEONE finally remembered to bring his pokégear with him
"How's that pokédex coming along?" Birch asked excitedly.
"Good, caught six or so pokémon today, did you get them?"
"Yes I did. I am especially excited about the heracross. It's a bug and fighting type. Not exactly common."
"Hey, Professor Birch." Athena said, lowering her voice. "Do you know a Jeremy?"
"Jeremy? Yeah I- oh hang on, someone else is calling me. I'll call you right back."
Athena groaned and closed the pokégear. What was the point in getting this thing if she could barely use it to communicate with the Professor? She had Steven's number, but she never called him. She was much to awed and scared to do it.
note
edited 1st Jun '10 4:40:09 PM by A_H_R
New User HandleSean slowly left the Pokemon Center, berating himself for chickening out of depositing Sparkles. The thought that he needed the horrifying creature for protection was embarassing. But he knew what he had to do: Shroom and Shroom Jr. needed some training.
As he saw Athena, Jeremy, and Nathan nearby, he stopped. It wouldn't due for the others to see him in low spirits. Especially Jeremy and Athena, the former for his total fear of Sparkles and the latter because Sparkles attacked her own Dusclops. Sighing, he put on a brave face and walked up to the youngest, Nathan. "Whatcha watchin' there, sport?" he asked, smiling at the youngster.
"Evii is right though" -Saturn "I didn't know you were a bitch Evii." -Lior Val"Contests" Nathan answered unenthused. "Jeremy said something about rooms and walked off. I thought he wasn't meant to treat me like a kid. He's only four years older."
edited 1st Jun '10 6:02:06 PM by Luthen
You must agree, my plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity! My Tumblr

<Crap> Rona muttered when the Sableye threw the first shadow ball.
<Indeed> Kotree replied.
"What's happening?"
<We should get the boy away>
"Where's Fuzz?"
<Yes> Kotree palmed Fuzz's pokeball, returned him, picked up Nathan and ran for the pokecentre.
Low put her passenger down as softly as possible. But since he was somewhere else and not on her back as usual, that wasn't very much. And the muttering wasn't helping her concentration.
"Run from the ghosts. Ghosts are soul-stealers. Ghosts are the little deaths wanting total obliteration. Run from my fears. Or the ghosts will pass near me and through me. And when they're gone I must turn to see them. When the ghosts are done there will be nothing. Only ghosts will remain."
"Swell! Swellow low!"
"wanting tot- wha? Low?" Jeremy looked around confused.
<You're back! Now, we need to get Kotree and Rona>
"Nathan!" Jeremy tried to shake Low by the shoulders, but she didn't really have any so it didn't work. "Where is he?"
<With the others>
"We have to go back." Jeremy turned to where he thought they'd been, and saw the pokecentre, "No. I need to get the full team." He took off at a jog towards the pokecentre.
edited 31st May '10 6:08:45 PM by Luthen
You must agree, my plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity! My Tumblr