Cyndadile's Topaz Adventures

[Cyndadile]

Disclaimer: The following does not reflect the actual plot, events, or pokémon encounters of Pokémon Topaz

Also, for an ideal experience, please use the "Morning" skin for the forum
http://cyndadile.webs.com/Topaz%20Adventures%20Banner%20Clipped.png

What is Topaz Adventures?
What is Topaz Adventures? Why, it’s a story. It’s a story about a romance gone bad, unforeseen consequences, obscure references, double entendres, and bad chapter titles. It’s a story about success and failure, friends and family, love and hate, Pokémon and trainers, Rockets and Orions. Most of all, it’s a story about me, Tony, and my Pokémon, and all the challenges we faced.

[Cyndadile]

Part 1: First Steps
****"Happy Birthday!" yelled my friends.
****It wasn’t much of a surprise since the entire town was there. There are only about 20 people in Neo Bay, if you don’t include the Prof and her aides, and we like it that way. Neo Bay is probably the cleanest town in Caldera, and a rival to Kanto’s Pallet Town. The water is clean enough to drink and the forests are green. The wild pokémon are very diverse; in fact, I think Neo Bay is the only place where you can see wild Venap, Celsinge, and Echoise.
****My name is Tony, and I’ve lived in Neo Bay all my life. I’ve never been farther than Sunset Village. My parents were both Pokémon Trainers. Mom won 11 badges. Dad only got 9, and Mom always reminds him of that. They both got their first pokémon when they were 16. I just turned 18 and they still haven’t let me get one. My girlfriend, Emily, got one last month. It was an Ampure. She called me the other day and told me she got the Gale Badge already. I was proud of her, but more than a little jealous.
****My birthday party was a lot of fun, but Emily couldn’t be there. She called to say happy birthday and to apologize profusely for not making it. Apparently, Team Rocket was blocking off the Route between Softwind and Sunset Village. They’ve been pulling off a lot of weird stuff like that lately. Rumor has it they’re chasing Unicrown. If so, I think they’re looking in the wrong place.
****Peter got me a new pair of running shoes. Peter was my best friend since we were kids. He’s getting his first Pokémon next week.
****My parents bought me a new Gen IV Pokégear. It had a lot of cool features that my Gen II one didn’t have.
****Gregory gave me one the books he’s written. It was a motivational book called "Get Ampure’d." He gives me the same book every year. Gregory lives on the mainland just outside Neo Bay. He claims he’s a writer, but I think he’s only written that one book.
****At the end of the party, my parents gave me a green envelope.
****"What is this?" I asked, though I knew they wouldn’t tell me.
****"Just open it," Mom said. I did.
****Inside was a small plastic card. It had my picture and all my information on it.
****"A Trainer Card…" I whispered. A Pokémon Trainer’s ID. That means…
****"We’re going to let you get a Pokémon," Dad said. I thanked them and hugged them both. I could finally get a pokémon! I’ll have a chance to collect all 12 badges, face the Pokémon League, and be the best trainer in Caldera! My mind raced as I imagined beating Myrna, Melanie, Greyson and Spencer, and becoming the Champion!
****"There are some things we have to discuss, first," Mom said. I half listened to their conversation as I thought of adventuring as a Trainer.
****"…and don’t forget to call us every week," Mom concluded.
****"Now," Dad said, "it’s time for you to choose your pokémon. Professor Willow will be waiting for you in her lab."
****After saying goodbye, I took off to the Prof’s lab. Her lab isn’t its own building; she lives and works on a boat docked at the south of Neo Bay. All of the kids here have been to the lab. Professor Willow is always willing to show us her experiments. It’s kind of like having our own museum here in town, at least temporarily. Once her research here is complete, the Prof is going to leave Neo Bay to study elsewhere.
****"Hello, Tony," Professor Willow said as I boarded the ship. As I said before, Neo Bay is a small town, so she knows everyone by name.
****"Hello, Professor Willow," I returned, trying to contain my excitement.
****"So, you’re finally choosing your first pokémon," Willow commented. "As is customary, I have three pokémon available for you to choose from. All three of these are rarely found outside of Neo Bay. These pokémon were part of the reason I came here." She turned to a table and picked up three pokéballs.
****"The first option is Venap," she said, releasing a pokéball. A small, humanoid plant materialized in front of me. "It’s a grass type, and will evolve to be part dark type," she added.
****She released a second pokéball. "This is Celsinge," she said as a small, flame-covered lion emerged. "It is fire typed and will learn to specialize in psychic as it evolves."
****"The final option is Echoise." The final pokéball contained a small blue dolphin. "A water type, but it learns to master light as well."
****I looked at the three pokémon before me. Venap seemed to be falling asleep, and Celsinge was licking its paw. Echoise, on the other hand, was staring at me intently. It looked away as I returned its gaze.
****I knelt down and held out my hand to it. It stared at my hand, then squirted a small spray of water at me.
****"I think it likes you," Willow said.
****"I think I’d like to take Echoise," I responded.
****"Good choice." Willow handed me its pokéball. "Take good care of it. Also, I have a request…" She paused.
****"Well?" I asked. "I’ll do anything."
****"I’d like you to help with my research." She took a red electronic device from a drawer. "This is a pokédex. I imported several of them from Professor Oak in Kanto. Right now, the pokédx network has data recorded on over 600 pokémon. However, there are at least 764 pokémon in the world. We want to record data on all of them. That’s why I need help." She gave me the pokédex.
****"One of your friends, Emily, is helping me catalog the pokémon in Caldera, Kirant, and Johto," she continued. "She’s already added almost a dozen pokémon. But there is one pokémon that I’ve been searching for for years."
****Willow opened my pokédex and punched a few keys.
****"Jirachi. A mythical pokémon," the pokédex recited as its screen lit up with a picture of a stone engraving of a pokémon. "There is no information on record about this pokémon."
****"Jirachi…" I repeated.
****"I thought that Neo Bay might hold some clue to its location, but I’ve found nothing. I thought the pure environment here might make it a perfect home for Jirachi, but…" she shook her head. "Now I’m not so sure. If I can’t find anything before then, I plan to leave Neo Bay by the end of the month. Will you try to help me find Jirachi?"
****"I’ll do what I can."
****"Thank you. If you find out anything about Jirachi, please let me know."
****We exchanged pokégear numbers, and then I left the ship. I had no idea how I could find Jirachi, but I was confident that I would. I said my farewells to my friends, then crossed the bridge to leave Neo Bay. The sun was setting ahead of me as I began down the Route. I considered turning back, to sleep at home and start as soon as the sun rose, but I just kept walking. This was the beginning of Echoise and I’s journey. I wasn’t about to turn back.
Part 2: Bump in the Night
****Route 49 was a short route, only about a mile as the Murkrow flies. Usually, it doesn’t take more than twenty minutes to cross to Sunset Village.
****The route was a lot longer at night. I jumped every time a Hoothoot hooted. I could hear wild Pokémon moving in the forest around me, but I couldn’t see any of them. The only light I had was the soft glow from Echoise’s fins and tail.
****“So, Ecco,” I said to Echoise, “just let me know if you want to stop.”
****“Eee,” Ecco responded from his perch on my head.
****I heard some leaves rustling in the forest. “Are you sure? We can always wait until moring.”
****“Ooo-eee,” said Ecco.
****“Well then,” I said, and we both fell silent.
****As my eyes were finally getting adjusted to the darkness, a bright light appeared in the path ahead of us, casting the world in a golden hue. Ecco and I hurried towards the source to see what was happening.
****The source of the light was a Mermeidon. It was fighting a Celsinge and appeared to be winning. The Celsinge was trembling as it faced the more powerful Pokémon, and as we watched it fell over.
****“Finish it off with Toxic,” a deep voice commanded. In compliance, the Mermeidon prepared a mouthful of purple poison and spat it towards the injured Celsinge.
****“Ecco, Water Gun!” I shouted. Ecco leapt up from where he was perched on my head and spat a steady stream of liquid at the poison. The poison dissolved before it reached the Celsinge.
****“What do you think you’re doing?” the Mermeidon’s trainer asked. He was a tall man and wore a black shirt, black pants, and a black hat. He really had a thing for black, I decided. Over his heart he wore a pin, about the size of a Gym Badge, but it was in the shape of a red letter “R”.
****“I was going to ask you the same thing,” I said. “It’s illegal to fight wild Celsinge; they’re protected under the Caldera Protected Species Act. Even if it wasn’t illegal, that Celsinge is really badly injured!”
****“And you think I care?” the man shot back. “I took this Mermeidon, didn’t I? The scars build character, endurance. A weak Pokémon has no place on my team. I’ll catch what I want, train how I want, and anyone in the way is going to pay the price.” Mermeidon turned to face Ecco and me. “Supersonic,” the man said.
****Waves rippled through the air and my mind began to fog. Who was that man again? I tried to clear my thoughts, but it was painful to think. I decided that thinking was overrated, so I’d just stand and watch.
****A dark blur rushed towards a fuzzy tan spot. All I could remember was that the dark blur looked familiar. Maybe it would know what was going on. It might be able to help me. I tried to walk forward but I tripped and fell. I rolled over on my back. The dirt and leaves were comfortable beneath me. There were lots of stars in the sky and the air smelled fresh. What a funny word, “fresh.” Fresh, fresh, fresh.
****It was nice out here, no light pollution a nearby city…
****I quickly came to my senses to find Ecco drooling pure water onto my face. I looked up to see the man in black standing over Celsinge and pulling a pokéball form his belt.
****“Water gun,” I told Ecco, pointing at the man. Ecco let out a stream of water, pushing the ball out of the man’s hand to fall open on the ground.
****“Stupid kid,” the man muttered. “Mermeidon, attack!”
****Mermeidon lashed out at me with her tail. I ducked as she flew overhead. Mermiedon landed and turned around. Her mouth began to foam and a steady stream of bubbles flew towards Ecco and me.
****“Tackle!” I shouted. Ecco leapt forwards, forcing his way through the bubbles. He hit Mermeidon in the head, sending her flying back. “Keep attacking!” I shouted. As Ecco began to swing her tail at Mermeidon, I stood up and ran towards Mermeidon’s trainer.
****He had just recovered the pokéball as I reached him, and I elbowed him in the stomach. He shouted a few words that would make mothers cover their children’s ears, then he swung a punch at me. I backed off and kicked him in a place that caused much more pain than the elbow in the stomach. He fell to the ground, curling up and keeping his legs together.
****I reached down and plucked a pokéball from his belt. “Mermeidon, return,” I ordered as I pressed the button. A red light flooded from the ball and enveloped the Pokémon. Then she was gone.
****Ecco was breathing heavily from the battle, but he didn’t look injured so I examined the Celsinge. It was lying on its side with its eyes closed. There was a large gash on its left side, and red blood was slowly pouring out. I set down my backpack and pulled out a small purple bottle. I quickly read the potion’s instructions, and sprayed a fine purple mist onto the wound.
****Celsinge whimpered slightly as the wound closed. I wiped the blood away, revealing a scar where the wound used to be. Celsinge opened its eyes and tried to stand up. It wobbled slightly but didn’t fall. It licked my hand, the one holding the potion, and then dashed into the forest. I wanted to follow it to make sure it would get home alright, but I knew that it would be fine if it was strong enough to run.
****Ecco cried out behind me. I turned to look. He had jumped over to where the man in black had been curled up, but the man was gone. Ecco was nudging at something on the ground. Picking it up, I wiped the mud off it. It was the “R” badge the man had been wearing. I slipped it into my pocket, picked up Ecco, and began to follow the trail again.
****“Well, that was unexpected,” I said after a minute or so.
****“Eee,” Ecco agreed.
****“Do you think we’ll see him again?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.
****“Eeee ee eeee o eee o e.” Ecco sounded very confident. I wasn’t sure what he was confident about, but it was good to know that one of us had things under control.
****We soon encountered a small house with an orange roof.
****“Want to rest?” I asked Ecco.
****This time, Ecco agreed. We walked towards the house. It belonged to Emily’s parents, and I knew they had a spare bed and always welcomed visitors. Her mother would still be awake watching the new “Unova Idol.” It was her favorite show. She always got irritated when Emily and I were too loud while the show was on.
****I stood outside the house, looking in the window, and waited for a commercial break before I knocked on the door.

[ImmunityBow]

This reads like some of the more awesome TRPG beginning posts I've read. So I'm guessing you've decided that the Pokemon don't shout their names like in the anime?

[Cyndadile]

Thanks, I think.
Yeah, I tried to base the pokemon's sounds more on what I think they'd sound like.
For example, Venap doesn't look like he'd be able to pronounce "Venap". Something like "aaaaarAH" seems more his style.

Edit: I'm hoping to update on a regular basis, maybe something like once a week, on Sunday Evenings. Of course, I might not always make the deadline.

Also, added a little description above "Part One", kinda a "teaser". Here it is:

What is Topaz Adventure? Why, it’s a story. It’s a story about a romance gone bad, unforeseen consequences, obscure references, and bad chapter titles. It’s a story about success and failure, friends and family, love and hate, Rockets and Orions. Most of all, it’s a story about me, Tony, and my Pokémon, and all the challenges we faced.

[Cyndadile]

Part 3: Double Team
****When I woke up the next morning, Emily’s parents had a lot of questions. They wanted to meet Ecco, and Ecco was overwhelmed by the amount of attention they gave him. They were thrilled to hear that I had started my journey for badges, but they were surprised that Emily hadn’t called to tell them about Ecco.
****“Emily doesn’t know yet,” I admitted.
****“Why not?” asked Emily’s dad.
****“I wanted to meet her and surprise her.” I knew that Emily was on her way to face Gym Leader Froy in Cranewing City, and the only Route to Cranewing would take her through Pinedale Forest. I thought I could catch up with her there.
****When I was ready to leave, Emily’s mom made sure I had everything I needed. Emily’s parents had always treated me like their son, and they wanted to make sure I was prepared. Emily’s mom had a more thorough list of supplies for me than my real parents did. Once I passed inspection, I said goodbye and continued along Route 201.
****Emily’s house was about halfway between Neo Bay and Sunset Village. In the daytime, it was only ten minutes before I could see the village through the dense trees. Excited to finally travel Route 202 for the first time, I broke into a run.
****The grass was tall, so I didn’t see the Pokémon until I had already tripped over it.
****“RrrrrrrrARF! RrrARF!” exclaimed the Pokémon, trying to growl and bark at the same time. The small brown quadruped held its bushy tail high in the air, trying to scare me off. Instead, it looked like it was the one who was frightened out of his wits. I had never seen a Pokémon like it before.
****“What kind of Pokémon are you?” I wondered aloud.
****“Lupine,” said a robotic voice. “Its large ears alert it to even the slightest rustle of leaves. A curious puppy, it will often chase after any sort of sound it hears.” I took out my Pokédex. The blue light at its corner was blinking, and I opened the device as it continued to read out the Pokémon’s moves and abilities. I scrolled to the bottom of the page before I found what I was looking for; a line that read “CPSA Protected: No.” It was legal to battle and catch it.
****I looked up. The Lupine was slowly backing away.
****“Let’s go, Ecco,” I said, and the dolphin jumped off my head and into the grass.
****“RrrARF ARF ARF!” The Lupine jumped into the air, and as it landed another Lupine appeared beside it. They both jumped, still barking, and two more appeared. By the time they stopped bouncing, there were at least 30 growling Lupine around us.
****“Eeeee-ooo?” Ecco asked. This battle might have been a mistake.
“Tackle the closest one!” I told him. Ecco obeyed. As he hit the Lupine, it dissolved into a brown and green mist.
****“What…?” I wondered aloud. “Hit the next one with your tail!”
****The second Lupine dissolved in the same manner as the first. Then I understood. The Lupine hadn’t called for more of its pack; it had used double team! But the Pokédex hadn’t listed double team as a natural move…
****“Ecco, start spinning around and use water gun! Try to hit them all!” Ecco began to twist in circles, spraying water in all directions. One by one, each of the Lupine turned to mist. The mist was hard to see through, and I couldn’t tell where the real Lupine was.
****“Ecco, can you see it?” I asked.
****“Ooooo…” Ecco replied.
****“Try to find it! It couldn’t have gone far!”
****Ecco hopped into the grass, and I began searching, too. The fog was slowly lifting, but I couldn’t see Lupine anywhere. I moved farther from the path, wondering if the Lupine had run back to the forest.
****At last, I heard Lupine’s growling and Ecco’s squealing. I rushed towards the source of the sound.
****Lupine was backed against a rock, vines growing from the leaves around his neck. Ecco was being held down by the vines, trying to use water gun against the wolf. Every time Ecco readjusted himself, Lupine would force the dolphin’s head in a different direction.
****I reached into my pocket and took out a new pokéball. “Hey, Lupine!” I shouted as I threw the ball.
****Lupine looked up in surprise as the ball hit him. The vines wilted away as he was absorbed into the ball, but he tried to escape. The ball rocked back and forth as Lupine tried to force his way out. Eventually, the ball stopped. Sparks flew from the ball’s button as the bond was made between capsule and Pokémon.
****I checked to make sure Ecco was alright. He had a few scratches, but I wasn’t too worried. I returned him to his Pokéball anyways, just to be on the safe side.
****Then I walked over to let out Lupine. As the Pokémon emerged, it whimpered and backed off a little.
****“Hey,” I said to him, trying to be as soothing as possible. “You’re very good at double team. You learned it as a TM, didn’t you?” I knew that Lupine couldn’t have learned the move naturally, so he had to have been taught using a Technical Machine. That meant that he used to have a Trainer. And I caught him, so he must have been released. That could explain why he was here, where there are no other wild Lupine.
****I took a guess. “Your old Trainer was mean to you, wasn’t he?” The Lupine seemed to nod. “I promise I’ll take care of you. It’s not safe for you to be here without a pack. Here,” I took a granola bar from my backpack, “have something to eat.”
****Lupine slowly moved forward, trying to determine if it was a trap. He then darted forward, taking the bar from my hand, and jumped back to eat it. As he was chewing on it, I reached out to pet him. He paused as he saw my hand, and then continued eating. He let me pet him.
****When he was done, I held out his pokéball. “Do you want to stay out? Or go in?”
****Lupine shook his head and backed off.
****“Ok then,” I said. “Out it is. Let’s go.” Lupine hesitated for a moment before running after me, and the three of us arrived at Sunset Village.
I do take a great deal of inspiration from the anime. For example, only the anime seems to represent Double Team like this.
I also take inspiration from 80’s hit music, if anyone cares. On a related note, stay tuned for next week’s installment, “Part 4: Right Round, Baby, Right Round”.
You spin me right round, baby right round, like a record baby, right round round round.

[ImmunityBow]

Considering your update schedule ideas, it might be possible to dedicate a section of the main site to fics like this and update them as necessary. Seems like a little extra content for people to share in the Topaz world.

[Cyndadile]

That might be interesting, if we can get more fics.
Would you like me to move this to a new thread in Cafe Topaz for now? Separate it from the other stuff?

[ImmunityBow]

If you want I can split the topics. Hmm, I wonder if I could write something for Topaz... At some point reposting all the World of Topaz stuff would probably be nice too.

[Cyndadile]

That would be great (all three, actually).

[Cyndadile]

Three pages? These are usually two! That’s 3/2 the story for 2/3 the price! AND, for a limited time, you can get this story ABSOLUTELY FREE! What more could you want?
“Quality writing?”
I hate you, imaginary person who writes in italics.

Part 4: Right Round, Baby, Right Round
****“Back so soon?” Professor Willow asked as I boarded the boat.
****“Route 50 is blocked off,” I explained. Back at Sunset Village, several police officers had been keeping travelers out.
****“This Route is closed,” he said.
****“Why?” I asked.
****“Several members of Team Rocket are hiding out in the forest. We’re keeping it closed until can insure the safety of travelers.”
****“I was kind of disappointed,” I explained to Professor Willow. “I wanted to surprise Emily by showing up in Pinedale, but Team Rocket kind of ruined that. I called her on my way here and told her about Ecco.”
****“Well, that doesn’t answer the question of why you’re here,” said the Prof.
****I had returned to Neo Bay hoping that the Prof would be going to Kalypso City soon. Every month or so, she took her floating lab down to Kalypso in Kirant. The police officer in Sunset Village said Route 50 could be blocked for as long as a month, so I hoped to hitch a ride with Willow to get an earlier start on collecting badges. I told her all of this.
****“I’m sorry, I’m not going to Kalypso any time soon,” Willow told me. “However, if you’d be interested in going to Hollowlog, I was planning on leaving tomorrow.”
****There was no gym in Hollowlog, but at least it would be a start. “What time should I be here?”
****By 9:30 the next morning, Neo Bay was fading into the distance. We were on the open waters of Route 87 and heading southwest. The Prof was inside, recording the Pokémon on the ship’s radar, but I was standing out on the deck. The air smelled salty, and it was kind of refreshing.
****Willow refused to have me do any work, but I felt obligated to help out so I found a mop and started cleaning the deck. She must not have a janitor, since the floorboards were covered in grime.
****Ecco was jumping in the waves around the ship, and I saw a few Trillogill joining him. Meanwhile, Lupine was standing with his front paws on the prow of the ship. With his tongue sticking out and his tail wagging, the Pokémon seemed happier than I’ve ever seen him.
****I was standing near Lupine when the boat suddenly slowed. I had to hold on to the railing to keep from flying off the boat, and I grabbed Lupine so that he wouldn’t fall into the sea. Despite being grass-typed, Lupine wasn’t a huge fan of water.
****“What happened?” I called back to Willow. She emerged from the ship’s cabin, along with several of her aides.
****“Our captain says something is stuck in the rudder,” Willow said. “He’s having trouble turning the ship. We’re going to go have a look.”
****I followed them to the rear of the ship. As I looked over the side of the boat, the problem became evident.
****“Where’s the rest of it?” I asked. It looked like something had started tearing apart the back of the boat. There were giant bite marks all over, but it didn’t look like any water was leaking into the boat.
****Willow muttered something under her breath. “Toss me your Pokédex,” she said. I dug it out of my pocket and handed it to her. She flipped it open and pointed it at one of the bite marks.
****“Scanning,” said Dexter, and it paused for a moment. “Gyrados,” it said at last. Willow cursed as the machine continued. “It has an extremely aggressive nature. The hyper beam it shoots from its mouth totally incinerates all targets.”
****“I thought Gyrados didn’t live in these seas,” I said.
****“They don’t,” Willow replied, tossing my Pokédex back. “Now, we have enough supplies to patch it up, but we’ll need to deal with the Gyrados first.” She paused. “And why are we moving? I thought I told the captain to shut off the engine!”
****“He did,” said one of the aides. “Look.” He was pointing several dozen yards away, into the water on the starboard side. The water was lower there and foam was spraying out. We were being pulled in a circle around it.
****“A whirlpool,” said Willow. “For a Gyrados to make a whirlpool this big, it would have to be very strong. And we’re being sucked in with no way to steer. Just wonderful.”
****“What should we do?” asked one of the aides.
****“Get your Pokémon ready,” Willow told me as she withdrew a pokéball. “We’re going to have to beat it.”
****My Pokémon… Ecco! I ran to the edge of the ship. “Ecco!” I yelled. I couldn’t see the blue dolphin anywhere. “Ecco!” Maybe he had been dragged in.
****“Ecco can take care of himself for now,” Willow said. “He’s a water Pokémon, and a fast one. He’ll be able to out swim a Gyrados.” Willow had come to stand next to me, and a large grass-type Pokémon was standing next to her. “It’s a Bayleef,” she said when she saw me looking out it. “From Professor Elm in Johto. Now, get Lupine ready.”
****I released Lupine and he jumped onto the railing of the boat. He looked ready for a fight.
****I looked into the water for any sign of a Pokémon, but I couldn’t see anything. “Professor,” I said, “Can’t you use the ship’s radar to locate it?”
****“It won’t help,” she explained, “Something is masking it. Otherwise, we would have seen it when it took out the rudder.”
****“Doesn’t that mean that the attack was deliberate? Pokémon can’t hide from radar on their own, can they?”
****“Not usually, but-” Before she could finish her sentence, three creatures came out of the water on the port side. The first was a Mermeidon, and it jumped onto the deck of the ship. The next was a Gyrados, and the third was a man wearing SCUBA gear, sitting on the back of Gyrados.
****The man spat out the mouthpiece of the gear. “Professor Willow, so we meet again!”
****“Again? I have no idea who you are,” said Willow.
****“You again!” I shouted. It was unmistakable; He had the same brown hair, long nose, and green eyes, but he had a shiny new “R” badge on his black wetsuit. He was the man in black, the one who was trying to catch that Celsinge.
****“Oh, great,” muttered the man. “You’re the brat with the Echoise.”
****“You know him?” said Willow. “You didn’t tell me you had a run-in with Team Rocket.”
****“He’s Team Rocket? I always thought they were tougher guys.” I had never guessed that he was a Rocket. I’d never seen one before, except when they were on the news. I always imagined the Rockets as being muscular guys in large groups, with guns and strong Pokémon, like Machamp or something.
****“I’m right here, you know!” shouted the man. “Willow, my name is Henry. Remember, I’m the kid who asked for an Echoise? And you wouldn’t give me one?”
****Willow shook her head. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”
****“Well, that doesn’t matter. On behalf of Team Rocket, I demand that you hand over your Pokémon, or I’ll have the pleasure of watching you sink to the bottom of the sea.”
****“Ohohohoho!” Willow laughed. “That’s rich. This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with a Rocket grunt like you. You’re not even one of the clever ones.”
****I could see Henry’s face redden. “Gyrados, take them out with hyper beam.”
****Gyrados opened its mouth and gathered energy for half a second, giving us more than enough time to get out of the way. The beam passed over the boat and between us, putting a hole in the railing but doing no substantial damage.
****“Leaf, use razor leaf,” Willow said to Bayleef. A swarm of leaves appeared around us and flew towards Gyrados. The water dragon howled as the leaves cut into it, and I saw several cuts in Henry’s wetsuit.
****“Pick up Mermeidon with vine whip,” I told Lupine. A pair of vines flew out of Lupine’s neck and grabbed Mermeidon. “Throw her at Henry!” I commanded. The dolphin hit Henry in the face, and he was knocked off Gyrados’s back.
****Meanwhile, Bayleef was preparing a solar beam to take out Gyrados. Gyrados was still tired from using hyper beam, and Bayleef was able to absorb enough sunlight in the leaf on her head before Gyrados made its move. The beam hit Gyrados in the chest, and Gyrados fell backwards in the water.
****I saw Henry grab Mermeidon, and he returned Gyrados to his pokéball. “You should’ve just handed the Pokémon over,” he yelled before he popped the SCUBA regulator in his mouth and dove underwater on Mermeidon’s back.
****It was a relief to no longer have the Gyrados hanging over our heads, but we still had two problems: Ecco hadn’t returned, and the whirlpool hadn’t slowed. In fact, it seemed like the vortex had sped up. We were extremely close to the center and listing severely to starboard.
****“Everyone with water Pokémon, let them out,” said Willow as she hurried towards the side of the ship. Several of the aides fumbled for their pokéballs, and I withdrew my Pokédex and had it read out the names of the Pokémon.
****“Marill. Tentacool. Floatzel. Blastoise,” Dexter said. I didn’t recognize any of them.
****By the time all of the water Pokémon were released, we had done a full lap around the whirlpool. “Push the ship away from the center!” commended Willow. She was pushing an anchor over the side of the boat.
****Blastoise was the first to obey, blasting a huge volume of water out of the cannons on its back. The others followed. We continued to move in circles, but we were slowing down. The anchor held the ship in place as the water from the Pokémon slowly filled the whirlpool.
****It took ten minutes, but we finally stopped spinning. I was looking into the water the whole time, searching for Ecco. I still couldn’t see him.
****“Professor, we need to find Ecco!” I said.
****Thud. Something landed on the deck of the ship. I spun around to see that Ecco had jumped up from the other side.
****“Where were you?” I demanded.
****“Eeee-oooooo e e e,” Ecco answered.
****“Why were you way out there?” I asked. Ecco raised his fins in what I interpreted as a shrug. “I was worried about you!”
****“Told you he could take care of himself,” said Willow. “Now, come and take this wrench. We still need to replace the rudder.” Within five minutes, we were seaworthy again.
****By the time we arrived at Hollowlog, I had gotten seasick, ruining what was, up until that point, a completely pleasant ride from Neo Bay.
Where did Henry go? What is he after? Will Tony ever get to a Pokemon gym? And why does Hollowlog smell so bad? At least one of these will be answered in next week's installment, "Part 4: Murky Paths".

Edit: Part 4 won't fit on my first post :( Going to need to move on to the second one. Good thing I already claimed the first two posts in this topic.

[Silver]

Really enjoying these, your extremely creative Cyn,

Please, keep 'em comin'

[NyteFyre]

Heh, from the way things are seeming to be going, you could easily work this into your TRPG Adventure! If you like, you can request battles that include specific pokemon, and such, within reason, from the moderators! That's a perk of a TRPG over a physical game.

[Cyndadile]

I do take a great deal of inspiration from the anime. For example, only the anime seems to represent Double Team like this.
I also take inspiration from 80’s hit music, if anyone cares. On a related note, stay tuned for next week’s installment, “Part 4: Right Round, Baby, Right Round”.
You spin me right round, baby right round, like a record baby, right round round round.

Three pages? These are usually two! That’s 3/2 the story for 2/3 the price! AND, for a limited time, you can get this story ABSOLUTELY FREE! What more could you want?
“Quality writing?”
I hate you, imaginary person who writes in italics.
Just wondering, does anyone know of something to call these random intro/conclusion comments with tangential relevance to the story? Because "random intro/conclusion comments with tangential relevance to the story" seems a bit wordy. I need something to call them in a self-referencing random intro/conclusion comment with tangential relevance to the story.
I could always abbreviate to RICCwTRttS, but I'm not comfortable being around that many capital letters.

[ImmunityBow]

AUTHOR'S NOTE usually works.

[Cyndadile]

But "AUTHOR'S NOTE" has even more consecutive capital letters! D:
Author's note: I lied last week when I told you that this week's installment would be "Part 4: Murky Paths." The real title is...

Part 5: Murky Paths
****“This is disgusting,” I whined.
****“Ah, you get used to it,” said Meredith. “In fact, I find the smell quite pleasant.”
****I found that hard to believe, but I didn’t bother saying it out loud. That would require breathing in, which I wanted to avoid at all costs.
****Meredith was a fortune teller and a swamp guide. Ususally, when I imagine fortune tellers, I think of larger old ladies wearing fancy outfits, but Meredith was quite different. She was a little older than me, around five and a half feet tall, and wore jeans and a purple v-neck shirt. She also wore a necklace. It was silver with a yellow, oval-shaped gemstone. She looked far too normal to be a fortune teller.
****The people of Hollowlog said that Meredith knew the shortest path to Roothaven, a path that bypassed both Route 57 and Route 56. No one told me that the path took us through the smelliest, muddiest part of the Abaddon Swamp.
****“So, if you’re a fortune teller, can you tell me what’s in my future?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if I believed in fortune tellers and psychics and stuff like that, but I haven’t ruled out the possibility. I mean, I’ve got a dolphin that can squirt vast volumes of water, and a wolf that can create illusions of itself from thin air. Anything is possible.
****“It’s not that easy,” Meredith replied. “I would need to concentrate and use some focus for my power. To see into the future without a focus is impossible… Unless you have a very strong destiny. I suppose I can try.”
****Meredith closed her eyes and slowed her breathing. I was stunned by how she was able to continue walking with her eyes closed without tripping over all the roots and stones. We continued walking, and I watched her chest rise and fall steadily with each breath. I followed the neckline of her top down, and…
****To those of you with the dirty minds: I’ve got a girlfriend, remember? What kind of person do you think I am? I was looking at her necklace.
****The gemstone in her necklace had started to glow faintly. Maybe she channeled her powers through it somehow.
****At last she opened her eyes again. Their color had changed from a deep green to a pale yellow, the same color as the gem in her necklace.
****“I see… two paths ahead of you,” Meredith said. Her voice sounded distant, as if her mind was elsewhere. I suppose her mind was actually in some sort of spirit world, if her powers are real. “You will soon have to make a choice,” she continued. “A choice that will change Caldera and Kirant forever. But…” she paused, a puzzled expression creeping across her face, “both paths end in darkness. Whichever one you choose, you will have chosen wrong.” She blinked and her face cleared. Her eyes were back to their normal color.
****“How can that be? How can both choices be wrong?” I asked.
****“What’s that?” Meredith asked.
****“You just said that I had to make a choice, but no matter what it’ll be wrong.”
****“Did I? Well, don’t worry about it too much. It’ll all make much more sense later.” Meredith continued walking. I chased after her, intending to ask for more clarification, when the swamp exploded.
****I fell down, and for a few seconds I couldn’t see anything except a bright white light. Then figures began to emerge from the light; outlines of trees and Pokémon and Meredith. She had her ears covered and was leaning against a tree.
****“Meredith!” I tried to shout to her, but I couldn’t hear my own voice. All I heard was a loud, high-pitched ringing. I fumbled in my pocket to pull out my Pokédex and held it up. Its blue light flashed and an image of a purple spherical Pokémon. The name at the top of the page read “Koffing.”
****I showed the image to Meredith and she nodded, mouthing “they’re angry.” Or it could have been “they’re hungry,” but the first one made more sense. Besides, being angry is much more dangerous, and it’s a better option to assume the worst.
****“Why?” I asked, and this time I could hear the sound of my voice, if not the exact words.
****Meredith stumbled over to me and took my Pokédex, punching a few of the keys. When she showed me the screen again, it had an image of a purple blob labeled “Muk.” “Fighting,” Meredith said, punching the air to make the point.
****“Should we do something?” I shouted. I couldn’t hear her reply. “What?”
****“I said, stop shouting!” she shouted back. “And there’s not much we can do without help. Someone will probably be here soon to try to clean this up.”
****As if waiting for her command, a group of men and women in white uniforms and black vests marched into the swamp around us. Each of them wore a shining gold “O”-shaped badge over their heart.
****“Who are they?” I asked.
****“Not people we want to deal with,” said Meredith. “They’re the Orion Defenders. They’re a group of criminals who try to separate Pokémon from humans. They just march around Caldera and Kirant like they own the entire Pokémon League, destroying things and taking Pokémon as they please. We should get out of here.”
****I nodded and followed her. Now that the side effects of Koffing’s explosion attack had worn off, I could see and hear fighting deeper in the swamp. There were a few dozen Koffing fighting several Muk. The Muk were outnumbered, but still seemed to be holding up. I covered my ears and closed my eyes as one of the Koffing swelled up and exploded.
****A hundred yards or so up the path, one of the Orion Defenders stopped us. She was average height and had long, red hair. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
****“We’re just passing through,” said Meredith.
****“You shouldn’t be here. This is the Pokémon’s land, which is why there isn’t a route here. In fact, you probably started this mess. Koffing don’t like trespassers.”
****“I know what I’m doing!” said Meredith, moving forward and giving the Defender a shove.
****“You should back off,” said the Defender as she withdrew a pokéball. I had to stop them from fighting. Meredith didn’t have any Pokémon, and I only had two. The Defender’s belt held four, and she was holding a fifth.
****How could I get us out of trouble? By causing more trouble, of course. I leaned over and picked up a rock. Taking a step forward, I threw the rock as hard as I could at the swarm of Koffing fighting the Muk.
****Instantly the swarm turned towards us. I grabbed Meredith’s hand as the Pokémon flew our way. I heard the release of a Pokémon as the Defender tried to defend herself.
****We ran a fair distance before one of the Koffing caught up to us. It was the Koffing I had hit; it still had the rock lodged in one of its craters. “Ecco,” I gasped, out of breath, “go.” I tossed the pokéball at the ground in front of me and my starter Pokémon emerged. “Water gun.”
****Ecco jumped up to the Koffing’s level and squirted it in the face. In return, Koffing began to spray a purple gas into the air. “Ecco, keep away from that gas. Fan it away with your tail, then go in and slash it.” Ecco obediently blew the gas away, slid underneath Koffing, and attacked from beneath.
****“Now just finish it off with…” the Koffing began to swell up. It was going to explode! “Ecco, get back!” As the dolphin slid away, I threw a new pokéball at the poisonous Pokémon and braced myself for an explosion. Meredith ducked behind a tree.
****After a few seconds, nothing happened.
****As nothing continued to happen, I risked a glance up. The pokéball was lying still on the ground. Koffing was caught! I raced to pick up the pokéball and returned Ecco to his own capsule.
****“We should get out of here before the Orions come after us,” Meredith said. She grabbed my hand and lead me deeper into the swamp.
Why hello there, Orion Defenders!

[ImmunityBow]

One description that's bugging me a little is "average height." I feel that it doesn't really give a very good description of the character. A lot of people have different ideas about what average height is, and you can go more interesting ways with a character whose height doesn't command a lot of attention.


Geez, I’ve got a girlfriend, remember? I was looking at her NECKLACE. Seriously, what kind of person do you think I am? The gemstone seemed to be glowing faintly. Maybe she channeled her powers through it somehow.
This also sticks out to me, since I feel almost as if I'm being yelled at for reading the fic. It might also be a little confusing moment for those who didn't initially think that way. Yeah, I'm in a little bit of a "customer service" phase right now, so I've been thinking a lot about how people could react and what makes them want to participate, whether by reading, watching etc. so that's my strange critique for you.

[Cyndadile]

<3
What? Who put that heart there? That's not weird at all.
Thank you for pointing those things out to me. I was considering not including that section, but for now I just edited it to (hopefully) clarify and make it seem less hostile.

[Cyndadile]

Part 6: Fernando
****Roothaven was a breathtaking town. Of course, when I first arrived I didn’t have any breath for it to take. Meredith and I had run all the way to the town from where we encountered the Orion Defenders. I gave my Pokémon to the nurse in the Pokémon Center, then sat down to catch my breath in the waiting area.
****Pokémon Centers are great. They heal your Pokémon for free, they’re open 24 hours a day, and they don’t wake you up when you fall asleep on one of their chairs.
****When I woke up the next morning, Meredith had already left. She left me a note saying where the gym was and wishing me good luck. I collected my Pokémon from the nurse and went to face Roothaven’s Gym Leader.
****As I said earlier, Roothaven was breathtaking. A giant tree towered over the town, blocking the hot rays of the sun and making the air pleasantly cool. There were trees everywhere, and almost all of the houses were up in the air, connected by a network of boardwalks.
****I navigated the path written on Meredith’s note and arrived at an old, moss-covered wooden building. I would never have believed that it was a gym if it weren’t for the word “ROOTHAVEN GYM” clearly written on the side, and the small plaque near the door indicating that it was a “Caldera-Kirant League Certified Gym.” As I entered the building, lights flicked on around me.
****“Hello?” I said. The gym’s interior looked just like the exterior; wooden, damp, moss-covered and abandoned. At the back was a raised platform with a large stone replica of the Vine Badge on the wall behind it.
****The wall next to the platform slid open. If you didn’t know it was there, you never would have seen the door.
****A large man walked out of the door. He towered over me. He looked strong enough to squash me like a bug, but his face was a sharp contrast to his tough-guy body. He looked friendly, and his bright green eyes seemed filled with compassion. His hair was an unnatural-looking purple and flowed down past his shoulders. He was wearing a ring of leaves around his head.
****The first thing I noticed, however, is that he wasn’t wearing any clothes. There was a bush of leaves secured around his waist, hiding his… private area, but that was all.
****“Um, hi,” I said. “My name is Tony, and I was looking for the Gym Leader…”
****“That is me.” He had a low voice and spoke softly. It would be hard to hear him in a crowd, but he had an air of authority that would demand everyone’s attention.
****“It is?” I asked before I could stop myself.
****“Yes. Fernando, Roothaven Leader. Expecting something different?”
****Someone wearing clothes. I kept the thought to myself.
****“You challenge a Gym Leader before?” I shook my head. He grunted. “Here is how it works. We both choose our first Pokémon. We release them together. Then we battle. You return a Pokémon, it is out of the battle. But, if one of my Pokémon is defeated, you switch Pokémon without penalty. If you win, you get Badge.” He held up a Vine Badge. “If you lose, you get nothing. You leave. Come back when stronger.” He took a deep breath, as if he wasn’t used to speaking that much at once. “Understood?” I nodded. “Choose your Pokémon.”
****I pulled out Lupine’s pokéball. Together, Fernando and I sent out our Pokémon.
****I had a fraction of a second to see Fernando’s Pokémon before it attacked. It was a Canileaf, the evolved form of Lupine. It looked a lot like Lupine, except larger, thinner, and more wolf-like. It had a green tail and foliage around its neck like Lupine, but green fur had begun to grow up its legs.
**** Canileaf lunged towards Lupine and secured its fangs around the smaller Pokémon’s tail. Lupine tried to shake it off.
****“Vine whip!” I yelled. Lupine promptly lashed out with a pair of vines, but they were stopped before they reached Lupine by Canileaf’s own set of vines. For a moment, the two Pokémon wrestled using the vines, but it didn’t take long for Lupine to be overpowered. Canileaf leaned forward to bite Lupine again.
****“Return,” I said, holding up Lupine’s pokéball. I didn’t want to risk Lupine getting too hurt. “Ecco, come out.” I knew Ecco would be weak to grass attacks, but I didn’t want to rely on Koffing unless I had to. I caught him less than twelve hours ago, and I didn’t really know what he could do or how he would respond to my commands.
****Fernando withdrew Canileaf before I let out Ecco. He chose another Pokémon, and we released them together.
****Fernando’s second Pokémon was a pumpkin with a green tail. “Dexter?” I asked my Pokédex.
****“Jackalant,” the machine explained. “The sprouted Pokémon. Unlike most plants, it photosynthesizes using light from the moon. In the spring, a blossom grows on its head that only opens up at night.” Fernando watched, an amused expression on his face, as my Pokédex spoke. The second Dexter finished, Jackalant attacked. Its tail grew out into a long vine and reached for Ecco.
****“Dodge and use tackle!” I said. Ecco tried to roll out of the way, but the Jackalant caught it in its single vine and lifted Ecco off the ground. Ecco tried to chew off the vine as he was pulled higher into the air.
****Fernando nodded, and Jackalant released Ecco from ten feet above the floor. “Hold on!” I said. Ecco grabbed the vine in his mouth. Jackalant began spinning the vine in circles, trying to fling Ecco off. If Ecco let go now, he would hit a wall and fall to the floor. He wouldn’t be able to keep battling.
****I returned Ecco and let out my third and final Pokémon. Koffing was my last chance. This time, Fernando didn’t change to a different Pokémon.
****“Koffing, use smog,” I said. Koffing glared at me, but let out a poisonous gas from its pores. Jackalant jumped through the gas, trying to tackle Koffing, and turned a bit greener. It was poisoned! I still had a chance!
****Koffing dodged the tackle and spat purple sludge at Jackalant. It hit the pumpkin in the face and stuck. Jackalant’s tail grew out again and started whipping around blindly, but it never made contact with Koffing. If anything, the vines just absorbed more of the poisonous gas floating in the air.
****Fernando grunted and returned Jackalant to its pokéball. He threw another ball in the air and Canileaf reemerged. Vines shot out from the wreath of leaves around its neck and twisted around Koffing.
****“Koffing, use smog again!” This time, Koffing glowed with for a moment and began to swell. He wasn’t using smog, he was going to explode!
****For a moment, I considered letting him do it, but I realized I’d just be a jerk if I did. It wouldn’t do me any good. Canileaf would probably be knocked out, but I knew Fernando had one more Pokémon, although I had no idea what it was. The explosion wouldn’t win the battle; it would just injure Canileaf… and probably Koffing, too. I doubt that a Pokémon can blow up without injuring itself.
****“Koffing, return.” The capsule closed around the Pokémon before it could detonate. “You win,” I said to Fernando. He nodded and returned Canileaf to its ball. “Thank you for the battle,” I said. Fernando nodded.
****I turned to leave, but stopped before I stepped out the door. “I noticed that you didn’t say a word during our battle,” I said to Fernando. “How did your Pokémon know what to do?”
****He thought for a second before he spoke. “When you become a strong trainer, your relationship with your Pokémon will strengthen. They will understand you, and you will understand them. You will have no need for words to communicate with them.”
****I took in his words, surprised that he took the effort to say that much. You know, he seems to be the “strong and silent type,” for the most part. Up until now, he had seemed kind of uncomfortable talking, but he seemed eager to share this with me.
****I turned to leave again, and this time it was Fernando who spoke up. “I look forward to our next battle. I am sure you will improve.”
****I thought about what he said as I left, navigating the maze of suspended walkways back to the Pokémon Center.
****I hoped that Ecco and I would eventually have that kind of relationship.

[Cyndadile]

This is a slightly shorter one. I guess I’m making up for that 3-page episode a while back.

Part 7: So We Meet Again
****Route 56 was a great place to train. There were plenty of wild Pokémon to practice against. I had Lupine attack Ecco with vine whip so Ecco could practice escaping the grip.
****Koffing still didn’t really like me, and he didn’t always listen to my commands. At least he didn’t blow up when I told him not to. Small steps.
****We had been practicing all day, and I thought I was close to coming up with a strategy. The only problem Koffing was too unreliable to use.
****It was getting late, and we were all tired. I had a nice room in one of the tree house complexes near Roothaven’s Pokémon center. It was the cheapest room in the city, but, then again, Roothaven was an expensive city to stay in. The room was nice. It had a large bed, and the owner of the tree house complex provided free breakfast.
****“Alright guys, want to call it a day?”
****“Eeee-oooo,” answered Ecco.
****“Yip yip!” said Lupine.
****“Huh huh huh,” wheezed Koffing. It wasn’t really an answer. He was just mocking me.
****I had returned my Pokémon to their pokéballs and started back to Roothaven when I saw a familiar flash of light deeper in the forest. I ran towards it.
****“What a familiar scene,” I muttered when I arrived at the clearing. I raised my voice. “So we meet again. It’s so good to see you again.”
****The human and two Pokémon in the clearing turned to look at me. Celsinge wagged its tail as it recognized me. The human did not look as happy.
****“Seriously?” Henry said. “What, are you stalking me or something?” Celsinge took advantage of the temporary distraction, setting the grass at Henry’s feet on fire and dashing past Mermeidon to stand beside me. Henry swore as he jumped away. “You know what? I’m not going to take this. Gyrados, Grimer, attack!” He released two more Pokémon into the clearing.
****“Lupine! Ecco! Koffing!” I yelled as I released each. Lupine immediately leapt towards Mermeidon, securing it in a vine whip. Meanwhile, Ecco moved to take on Grimer, and Koffing floated up higher in the air and started spinning around.
****“Koffing, get down here!” I yelled as Ecco sent a blast of water into Grimer. Koffing continued spinning around. Who says training doesn’t pay off? At least he wasn’t using self-destruct.
****“Celsinge, think you could help?” I asked. The lion cub purred. “Alright. Help Lupine.” Immediately the cub released a spurt of fire from its mouth and ran to join in the battle.
****That left Gyrados. I didn’t think any of my Pokémon could take it on alone, so I needed to stall it until they could team up on it. At Henry’s command, the water dragon prepared to unleash a hyper beam.
****I’ll admit that my next move was a bit rash. I ran up towards Gyrados, and I bit him on the tail. Of course, all that did was make him turn to face me before unleashing the hyper beam. I dove under Gyrados’s tail and felt the heat of the beam as it scorched the ground around me. Gyrados howled in pain as it burned its own tail.
****I ran out from under its tail and started climbing up its back. Like I said, I didn’t really think ahead. It thrashed its tail around and I hung on tight. As I flew past, I saw that Lupine and Celsinge had joined forces with Ecco. Grimer was little more than a flaming pile of sludge, and Mermeidon was nowhere to be seen. Henry must have returned it already.
****I continued to climb up the fins on its back. By the time it tried to turn around to bite me, I was too high for it to get me.
****When I reached the top, I called out to the Pokémon below. “Koffing, hit it with some sludge! Take out its vision!” Koffing turned to face me when it heard my voice and seemed to contemplate whether or not to obey. “Come on!” I yelled.
****Gyrados began to glow red below me. I was twenty feet above the ground, and Henry was returning the only thing holding me up! Gryados flipped its head, sending me flying into the air as it returned to its pokéball. I plummeted towards the ground. I had about a second to see my life flash before my eyes before I felt the impact. My face burned. Everything was black. I felt like I was suspended in mid-air. I tried to look around for some sort of light, but there was only darkness.
****I waited. And waited. And waited.
****“Arf! Arf! Arf!” I felt a cold blast of water flow into my face. My vision began to clear.
****The first thing I saw was Lupine, vines extended and barking. He was holding me up in the air.
****“You caught me,” I said. “But what happened after that?” In response, Celsinge growled. She was staring at Koffing, and didn’t look happy. I looked at Koffing, who was still spinning in circles, then down at the puddle of water below me. Mixed into the water was a thick purple sludge.
****“You blinded me!” I yelled at Koffing as Lupine set me down on the ground.
****“Huh huh huh,” wheezed Koffing. I could tell he was laughing at me. Such a jerk. I returned him to his pokéball.
****“Thank you, Celsinge,” I said.
****“Rrrrrrrrrr” purred the small Pokémon. Its wounds had begun to recover since we first met on Route 49, but it still had a scar on its belly. I returned Ecco and Lupine to their pokéballs and turned to leave.
****“Mrow!” Celsinge jumped in front of me.
****“Do you want to come with me?” I asked. A fire-type Pokémon would help me beat Fernando, but Celsinge were protected under the Caldera Protected Species Act. Of course, there might be one way to get around that…
****I called one of the few people on the continent who could give me permission to catch a protected Pokémon.
****“Hey, Professor Willow?” I said when she answered. “Could you do me a favor?”
/storycraft

[Cyndadile]

I can't storycraft on GLaDOS (My new computer, "Great Laptop although Deprived Of Sentience")... :(
Unless I use Notepad or Google Docs. But I have way too many grammar and spelling mistakes to use either. That leaves using Microsoft Word on my home computer until I go to la Universidad, where I'll finally get word back.

Part 8: Take Two
****Before we entered the gym, I reviewed the plan with my Pokémon. Except for Koffing. He and I still weren’t on speaking terms after he blinded me with his sludge.
****When I opened the door, Fernando was already waiting inside.
****“Hello, Tony,” said Fernando. I was surprised that he remembered my name.
****“I’d like to challenge you again,” I said.
****“Ok. You know the rules. Choose your Pokémon.”
****I picked out Lupine’s pokéball. “Ready,” I said. We released our first Pokémon at the same time. The battle started the same way as last time. Fernando’s Canileaf lunged towards Lupine to bite him.
****“Go!” I said. Lupine used double team and disappeared into a crowd of illusions.
****“Surprised you start with Lupine again,” Fernando commented. “Good to change up technique.”
****Trying to locate Lupine, Canileaf began to use vine whip, shattering the illusions one by one.
****Lupine joined in the attack, smashing as many of his doubles as he could. In seconds, the gym was filled with green and brown mist. I waited until I was sure Fernando couldn’t see me, then returned Lupine. Celsinge took his place.
****The mist began to clear. Celsinge darted past Canileaf, and the grass wolf yelped in joy as he found his prey. The wolf wasn’t so thrilled, however, when Celsinge’s fire set his vines aflame.
****The flames climbed up Canileaf’s vines and began to burn it. The wolf cried out in pain.
****Fernando tossed a pokéball in the air and Canileaf returned. “Good move,” he said. “Unexpected. My turn.” At this point, he released a Pokémon that I hadn’t seen before.
****“Brontogon,” Dexter said when I asked. “The Tremor Pokémon. Its foliage serves as camouflage against potential aggressors. Its massive size has earned it the nickname 'The Forest Sentinel. '”
****I hadn’t expected a Pokémon so large. It was over ten feet long and looked like some sort of green dinosaur. It had a long neck and tail, and plants were growing at the top of each of its four legs, at the end of its tail, and on the top of its head. Celsinge whimpered when he saw the Pokémon towering over him.
****“Celsinge, set its tail on fire!” I said. Celsinge’s flames reached the tip of the Pokémon’s tail, but the dinosaur rubbed the fire out on the dirt floor.
****Brontogon knocked Celsinge away with its tail and a stream of energy glowed green between them.
****“Get away from the absorb attack!” Celsinge was already moving. She set Brontogon’s head on fire and rolled away. Brontogon cried out in pain and tried to put the fire out by rubbing its head on the walls. The only result was that the walls caught on fire, too.
****“Dangerous,” Fernando explained. He took a bucket of water from beside the pedestal and began to put out the fire.
****“Ecco, help out,” I said, releasing the Pokémon. Ecco’s water gun put out the fire in seconds.
****Fernando nodded his thanks, then returned Brontogon to its pokéball. “Last Pokémon,” he informed me, releasing Jackalant. The small Pokémon put down roots into the soil and launched a series of seeds into Celsinge’s fur.
****Celsinge tried to roll around to rub off the leech seed, but it wouldn’t come off. I could see her energy draining away, so I reluctantly returned her to the pokéball. Now all I had left was a water type and a disobedient Pokémon. I let Ecco out.
****Jackalant’s tail grew into a long vine as it reached for Ecco. I’m glad Lupine and Ecco trained together, since it allowed Ecco to roll away from the vine without getting caught.
****Jackalant quickly got tired of trying to chase Ecco with its vine. It hopped to the center of the room and opened its mouth. A steady stream of seeds flew out as it spun in a circle. Ecco wasn’t fast enough to get away from the bullet seed, and he ended up with several cuts where the seeds punctured his skin.
****“Ecco, come back.” I couldn’t let him get too injured. All I had left was Koffing. “Alright, Koffing,” I said as I released him, “you’ve beaten him once, let’s do it again!”
****Jackalant was glowing silver. “What kind of move is that?” I wondered aloud. Fernando shook his head.
****Jackalant began to grow and change shape, and I fumbled for my Pokédex to see what was happening. The small pumpkin had quadrupled in size and, after a bright flash, returned to its normal, orange color. It was almost four feet tall now, had grown two more vines, and its skin had bubbled up in a couple of places. Its happy grin was replaced by a mean scowl, and its eyes were a dark red.
****“Phantern,” Dexter said. “Legends say that a candle burns inside it that never goes out. The flame is nourished by the anger and suffering of those around it.”
****“It evolved,” I whispered. I’ve never witnessed an evolution before.
****Fernando and Phantern didn’t give me time to appreciate the moment. Phantern’s three vines lashed out at Koffing. Koffing, however, was rolling around on the ceiling, laughing his wheezing chuckle and ignoring everything around him. Phantern couldn’t get a grip on him.
****“Koffing,” I shouted, “spray him with some poison gas!”
****“Huh huh huh,” answered Koffing, and he promptly continued to ignore me.
****Phantern decided to try a different strategy. It opened his mouth, but this time, instead of seeds, a stream of flame came out. It hit Koffing square in the face.
****“Huh?” said Koffing. It began to swell up to self-destruct.
****“Koffing, stop!” I yelled. Much to my surprise, Koffing obeyed. “Want to get back at Phantern? Just listen to me. Use poison gas!” Koffing considered it for a moment and then sprayed a purple gas into the air around Phantern. “Smokescreen,” I said as Phantern emerged from the gas.
****I covered my mouth with the front of my shirt so I wouldn’t breathe in the smoke. I couldn’t see anything. “Koffing, can you see Phantern?”
****“Huh huh,” he answered.
****“Alright, then hit it with sludge!” I heard the splatter of the sludge as it hit Phantern, and the disfigured pumpkin let out a roar of discomfort.
****“Stop,” Fernando said. I could hear his Pokémon returning. “Enough.” I heard a metallic rumble as the smoke began to blow away. I wasn’t sure where the fans were, but they cleared the gym in a matter of seconds.
****“Congratulations,” said Fernando. He handed me the Vine Badge. “Good battle.”
****“Thank you,” I said.
****“With one badge, you can use HM Cut. It helps you get farther,” he explained. “One more thing. Take TM. It has good move.” He handed me a disc. It had the words “62: CHERRY BOMB” written on it.
****“Thank you,” I said. “I hope we can battle again when we’re both stronger. He nodded.
****Once we left, I turned to Koffing. “Thank you paying attention,” I told him.
****“Huh huh huh,” he replied, spraying me with a vile-smelling gas.
****“I hate you sometimes.” I returned him to his pokéball, and went back to my room to try to wash off the stench.
Fun fact: The paragraph in this story with the most characters (as in letters, numbers, and symbols, not characters like Tony and Fernando) is the paragraph where I describe Jackalant's transformation.
Well, I thought it was a "fun" fact, anyways.

[Cyndadile]

Contest:
Shortly after last week's installment, I made a three(ish) small changes to three different stories. I mean, the Eragon guy did it (at least, I somewhat remember him having to change something in one of his books), why can't I? It's not like I have a reputation to uphold.
One of the changes was in "First Steps", where I replaced Torri with Melanie in the list of Elite Four members. The other changes were in "Double Team" and "Right Round, Baby, Right Round"
Anyways, the challenge is this: find the change in "Double Team" and "Right Round, Baby, Right Round". Reward: 3 internetz. Or I'll write a story. Or I'll promise not to make another picture like the Koffing cherry bomb picture. Your choice.
Hints:
The two changes are actually just the same change, in two different places.
The change is related to a Caldera/Kirant PLACE or PERSON, and it is a PROPER NOUN.

Also, GLaDOS got Microsoft Word. And Part 9 will be here tomorrow.

Edit:
New Hint: Chartree Forest

[Cyndadile]

Added a new hint to my previous post.

I’m sure you’ll find this installment is eggs-ellent. I can’t begin to eggs-plain how hard it was to find the eggs-act right eggs pun before I went with this eggs-ellent title. And… something about “eggs” backwards that you won’t understand unless you live somewhere near me! Haha!
The sane part of me wants you to know that I wrote this about a month ago. This egg-filled author’s note in no way represents my current state of mind. I assure you, I’m perfectly sane. Kind of. Maybe.

Part 9: Egg Toss
****I celebrated my win against Fernando by taking a shower for two hours. I’m not sure how plumbing worked in the tree house where I was staying, but the water was warm so I didn’t question it.
****Once I was reasonably sure that I had removed all traces of Koffing’s stench, I dressed myself and left the tree house complex. It was time to take on Route 85, the path to Saharan City. Saharan was home to Osiro, another of Caldera’s Gym Leaders. My map indicated that the Route went through Haventree Tunnel.
****When I arrived at the entrance to the tunnel, it seemed like the entire town was waiting blocking the path. I pushed to the front of the growing crowd to see what was going on.
****There were several police officers, five Pokémon, and a man in red standing at the entrance to the tunnel.
****“Drop the box and come out of the Tunnel!” the man in red yelled. In the dim light from the tunnel, I could see a group of about eight people in black uniforms. They were holding a large wooden crate, about a meter tall. I could tell that they were Team Rocket.
****“Ok, Ranger” one of the Rockets said. She released her side of the crate. “We’re coming out.” She stepped out of the tunnel and threw a pokéball in the air. The air filled with a black smokescreen and we heard a loud explosion.
****“Gashawk, clear the air!” yelled the man who the Rocket had called a Ranger.
****I heard a bird Pokémon flapping its wings and the smokescreen cleared. There was a huge hole in the side of the tunnel.
****“Find the Rockets!” shouted one officer to the others. Most of officers scattered in different directions. The Ranger moved to the hole in the wall.
****Pokémon Rangers are very rare in Caldera. They collect a team of Pokémon, but don’t bind them to pokéballs like Pokémon Trainers do. It’s a faster and easier way to “catch” Pokémon, but it’s temporary and doesn’t let the Ranger develop as strong a relationship with Pokémon as Trainers can develop. The Rangers go around the world, acting like police officers, and they’re very good at their job.
****“What did Team Rocket do?” I asked.
****Without turning around, the Ranger answered, “They stole four very important eggs. We think that three of them are in that crate, being delivered to Kalypso City. We need to stop them before they get there.” He looked up and stared into the forest beside the trail. “They went into the forest,” he muttered, and he took off into the woods.
****The remaining police officers were putting “caution” tape around the tunnel. I guess I wouldn’t be going to Saharan today.
****“Stop!” one of the officers yelled as I turned to leave. Six men and women wearing black vests with gold badges ran out of the tunnel. Both the Orions and the Rockets were here?
****Curiosity got the better of me, and I followed them into the forest.
****A few moments later, I caught up with them. The forest was chaotic. Trees were burning and Pokémon were fighting. The Ranger and his Pokémon were both fighting the Rockets and trying to put out the fires, and the Orions were about to join the battle.
****I slipped off to the right, where the Rockets were huddled together. I slowly made my way to the crate.
****A brown bird got there first. It looked kind of like a Gashawk, but it was larger. I considered taking out my Pokédex, but someone might hear it and catch me.
****The bird tore off the lid of the crate with its beak and snatched one of the eggs inside. The dark blue egg sparkled, reflecting the dancing light of the fires. Holding the egg in its claws, the bird lifted off into the sky and flew back to the Ranger.
****Second place went to an Orion Defender. He used a large red bear to hold off the Rockets as he tried to gather the other two eggs. He grabbed one and fumbled with the second, but was having trouble carrying two eggs. The Rockets forced him back before he could secure the second.
****By that time, I was within twenty feet of the Rockets. I waited for them to be distracted by the battle before I snuck up to the crate and pushed the lid up.
****The last egg was nestled in a blanket of straw. It was about a foot tall and looked like pure gold; it had the same color and shine. I picked it up. It was lighter than it looked.
****“He’s taking the last egg!” one of the Rockets yelled. Instantly, the Orions and Rockets all looked at me. I did the only sensible thing: I ran.
****I didn’t make it very far before a blue angel stopped me. At least, it looked like an angel, but I knew it was really some kind of Pokémon. It grabbed the egg and pulled up. I was able to hold on for a few seconds before I dropped five feet back to the ground.
****“Good job, Benengil!” one of the Orions shouted. His victory was short-lived. A dark cloud formed in the sky and zapped Benengil, making it drop the egg. One of the Rockets caught it.
****“Nimbolt, return,” the Rocket yelled to the Pokémon.
****That’s when the Ranger reappeared. He was riding a Brontogon and holding a brown pack with his egg inside. “Attack!” said the Ranger. I ducked out of the way as a swarm of sharp leaves and a set of thick vines hit the crowd. As the Rocket with the egg fell, the egg flew out of his hands.
****“Lupine, catch it!” I said as I released the wolf cub. A pair of vines shot out from Lupine’s neck and wrapped around the egg. He put the egg into my hands, and I returned him to his pokéball as I kept running.
****Roothaven was right ahead of us. I shoved the golden egg into my backpack and climbed up into the maze of tree houses and walkways.
****A hand wrapped around my arm. “Where are you going?” asked a female voice. Despite my policy about not hitting girls, I twisted around to punch whoever caught me… then saw who it was. I pushed her into the closest tree house.
****“I need your help,” I told Meredith. I didn’t know if I could really trust her, but she was better than the Orions or Rockets.
****“Why are all those people chasing you?” she asked.
****“I took something from them,” I answered. “It’s in my backpack.” I heard footsteps on the walkways outside. They’ve caught up. “Will you take it?”
****Meredith didn’t hesitate. She took off her own backpack, a small, light brown bag, and switched it for my blue backpack. “I’ll take care of… whatever it is. Now you should run!”
****I’ll admit that I had my doubts about giving the egg to Meredith, but she didn’t give me any time to rethink my plan. She shoved me out the door and directly into broad daylight.
****“There he is!” said one of the Rockets. To my right, the Rockets were advancing on me, the Orions were coming on my left, and Meredith had shut the door behind me (what a great friend). I only had one place to go.
****As I jumped off the walkway, I heard shouts of surprise from behind me. I heard something crack as I landed, and a jolt of pain shot up my leg. I collapsed to the ground and couldn’t get back up. One of the Rockets emerged from the forest in front of me, reaching for the bag in my hands, and as I tried to throw one of the pokéballs attached to my belt everything went black.
Note: I was originally going to do just one egg, a Togepi egg (I wanted Tony to have a Togetic), but the concept would seem like it was directly stolen from the anime. I think this egg has much more potential.
Also, bear with me in the next section. Big stuff happens, but not like major-climax stuff. I'm having trouble with it. I know what's going to happen, but I don't really know how to pull it off. So in next week's installment "Part 10: Nowhere to Run", my policy of "Critisism and Suggestions Always Welcome" is especially encouraged. This is the section that I have real problems with. This story was kind of iffy, too.

[Cyndadile]

Six or seven hours later than usual... I almost forgot about the whole Sunday Release thing.
I typed this story on my old computer, then rewrote it on GLaDOS. About halfway through the rewrite, I realized that I was trying to cram too much into one story, so I split it up into two and a half stories and delayed a major plot element until later. Now I need to find a way to fit in that plot element and get Tony back to Abaddon Swamp in time for Part 20.
All in all, I think this episode turned out pretty well. If anyone has advice, particularly when it comes to action scenes (it's hard to write battles for several Pokemon and people at the same time), it would be really appreciated. Also, if there's anything about the stories you particularly like or dislike, it's really important for me to know that too. (Cyn, I really like the way you nicknamed the giant Rocket dude.||What kind of lame description is "giant gun"?)

Part 10: Nowhere to Run
****How stupid do you have to be to tick off the police and two criminal organizations at the same time? I reflected on this question as the Rockets tied me up and threw me into a helicopter.
****I heard the steady whirring of the blades as the chopper took off. My captors had captured and blindfolded me in broad daylight, and no one bothered to help me.
****By the time the helicopter landed, I had lost track of time. Someone threw me out of the helicopter and forced me down a set of stairs. Do you know how hard it is to go down stairs with your arms tied behind your back? I had no way to keep my balance, so my captors basically had to carry me down the stairs.
****They tied me to a chair and left me there.
****It must have been several hours before they returned and removed my blindfold.
****“Where is the egg?” asked one of the Rockets. He was a large man dressed in black clothes and a black ski mask, which would be intimidating enough, and he was carrying a giant gun to complete the image. There was a second man, similarly dressed, but he was much thinner. We were in a room made of grey brick with cement floors, and the only decorations were a plain wooden table, the chair I was sitting on, and a light bulb hanging from the ceiling.
****“What egg?” I asked politely.
****“You know what egg. The gold one you stole from us.”
****“Oh, right. That egg.” I considered it for a moment, and decided that I had no reason to tell him who I gave it to. I didn’t want Meredith to get hurt. I didn’t want me to get hurt either, but I figured Meredith had a higher chance of getting away unharmed.
****“I have no idea where it is,” I said truthfully. “It could be all the way to Hoenn by now.” Of course, I doubted that Meredith had any interest in going to Hoenn, but it was possible.
****“We shouldn’t have brought him here,” said the second man. I focused on him when I heard his voice. “If he didn’t have the egg with him, he must have lost it or something. Jerry should have just left him back in Roothaven.” I squinted, trying to make out the man’s features through the mask. Large nose, squeaky voice… It was unmistakable.
****“He knows more than he’s telling us. He probably hid it somewhere,” the larger Rocket said.
****“Oh, ‘ello, ‘Enry!” I said in a bright voice.
****“Tony,” he said coldly.
****“G’day to you, too! I didn’t know you knew my name,” I said in the same cheery voice.
****He held up my Trainer ID in response. “Well, it’s nice seeing you again,” I said, my tone returning to normal. “I mean, it’s nice to not have to beat you up for once.”
****“What’s he talking about?” asked the Godzilla of Rocket members.
****“He’s the one who stopped me from catching Celsinge and taking over Willow’s ship,” Henry admitted.
****“This kid?” asked Rocketzilla. “You said it was a huge dude with six huge Pokémon. This kid only had three puny ones!” Three? I have four! I didn’t bother mentioning this because I didn’t want their attention back on me. I needed them to keep talking for just a few more seconds…
****“Hey, don’t underestimate him,” Henry warned as my fingernails cut through the last strands of the rope binding me to the chair. They really should have used handcuffs. Or at least a thicker rope. Maybe I should file a complaint or something.
****“He doesn’t have any Pokémon now. He’ll be easy to deal with.” As Rocketzilla turned back to me, I stood up and swung the chair into his face.
****As the larger Rocket swore profusely, Henry flinched in surprise and I hopped for the door, my legs still tied together. I knew it had to be somewhere behind me, since I hadn’t seen it from my seat. I wasn’t very fast, but Rocketzilla was distracted by his broken nose and I knew from experience that Henry had a poor reaction time.
****I had just about reached the door when Henry finally released a Pokémon. He went with Gyrados. I mean, I may not have been brilliant lately, but what kind of moron releases a freaking Gyrados in an enclosed space? Henry was more likely to suffocate on the dragon’s scales than take me out.
****I was reaching for the doorknob when the door shattered in. An Orion Defender was stepping through the doorway, but he backpedaled the second he saw the water dragon filling the room. Without a whole lot of options, I followed him in.
****The room was filled with Orion Defenders. Several of them were huddled around a table, and the others were watching the room’s entrances or preparing to take our Henry’s Gyrados. One of them approached me with a knife and cut the ropes binding my legs together. On the table were three pokéballs and Meredith’s bag.
****“Hey, kid,” said one of the Orions who was rooting through the bag. “These your Pokémon? Echoise, Celsinge, and Lupine?” I nodded. He tossed them to me.
****Why were these people being so nice? They were criminals, they had seen me take the egg, and yet here they were, breaking into the Rockets’ hideout and returning my Poémon to me.
****“Did you find a Koffing here?” I asked.
****“Kid, we’re in a Rocket base. There are Koffing everywhere.” A few of the Orions laughed. “But no, there wasn’t one here. Did you lose one?” I nodded. Koffing may not like me, but I didn’t want Team Rocket to get their hands on him. “We’ll let you know if we find it. For now, you need to get out of here.” He motioned to a few of his comrades, and they came forward. “These guys will escort you out, to our base here in Kalypso City.”
****“Can I have that bag back?” I asked, pointing to the brown bag on the table.
****“This is your bag?” He lifted a set of women’s underwear out of the bag. “I didn’t take you for that type…”
****“It’s a friend’s,” I explained.
****“Alright,” he said, tossing me the bag. “Now, get him outta here,” he said to the Orions he called before. Two of the Defenders lead the way out of the room, while another two followed behind me. We went down a dark hallway.
****“Hold on,” whispered one of the Orions after a moment. “Do you hear that?” I listened for a few seconds, then heard a low rumbling. “Stay here,” the Orion said. The four of them crept forward and looked around the corner, pokéballs in hand.
****Then the Onix broke through the wall.
****The ceiling collapsed as Onix ruined the building’s structural integrity. The daylight streamed in as I was surrounded by half a ton of giant rock snake. The Onix had curled itself in a circle around me, preventing me from escaping.
****I wasn’t the only one in Onix’s ring. The Orions were stuck outside, but a dozen or so Rockets were standing in front of me. One of them stepped forward.
****“You’ve got a lot of nerve, pulling a stunt like that,” he informed me. It was Rocketzilla, his nose puffy and red from being broken by the chair, his giant gun pointed directly at my chest. I was willing to bet that he didn’t bother switching the safety off.
****“I’d like to just get rid of you right now, but Boss thinks you’re too valuable for beating up Henry so much. So here’s the deal. You’ve got nowhere to run. So either you come with us…” he pulled a shiny new Rocket badge out of his pocket, “or we’ll need to mop up your blood. Got it?”
****Of course I got it. I had to choose to become a criminal or a corpse.
How Onix-pected!

[Cyndadile]

I absolutely hate this one.

Part 11: Job Offers
****It’s not a good idea to mess around when someone points a gun at you. Especially when that person really, really wants to kill you. The broken-nosed Rocketzilla standing before me really wanted to shoot me. I guessed that if I went for my pokéballs, I would be filled with bullets before I could take one from my belt.
****I looked around, trying to find a way out. I was surrounded on all sides by stone. The only feasible way out was up, but I can’t fly.
****“Make your decision now. My trigger finger gets twitchy when people make me wait,” said Rocketzilla.
****“Alright…” I began, speaking slowly to buy more time.
****One of the Rockets began to cough. Others covered their noses. One of the younger Rockets threw up.
****“What is that stench?” asked Rocketzilla, turning a bit to look at the Rockets behind him.
****The air had filled with a disgusting nauseating stench. It was an unbearable, terrible, familiar stench that made me instinctively cover my nose with my shirt. The layer of cloth did little to reduce the stench, but I didn’t mind the smell. As far as I was concerned, it smelled like freedom.
****Alright, I’ll admit that sounded pretty lame. But it was true.
****I leaped out of the way of Rocketzilla’s jumbo gun, and yelled “smokescreen!” A dark smoke poured over the edges of the Onix curled around us, and I heard a loud machine-gun blast of half a dozen bullets, but I had already gotten out of the way and was lying on the ground. I felt something land on my head, and I reached up to grab it.
****“Can you take me up?” I whispered.
****“Huh huh,” Koffing confirmed. I wrapped myself around the purple sphere and he began to float up into the air.
****Koffing set me down on the roof of the building, not far from Meredith.
****“Thanks, Koffing.” Koffing wheezed his acceptance. “How did you find me? And where did you find Koffing?” I asked Meredith.
****“I’ll explain later,” she said. “We should get away from here first.”
****Koffing lowered us one at a time off the roof of the building. He seemed tired, struggling a little under my weight, so Meredith returned him to his pokéball and gave it to me. As we walked quickly away from the smoking Rocket hideout, we switched bags and Meredith explained what happened.
****“After the Rockets caught up to you, you tried to throw a pokéball. I picked it up after you were taken away, and Koffing was inside. I went to the Pokémon Center and put the egg in the PC System. It should be safe there.”
****“The PC System?” I interrupted.
****“It’s a system that allows people to store Pokémon or eggs that they can’t take with them. In this region, a guy named Bill runs it. The Pokémon are sent away to several farms around the world where they’re watched after. It’s probably the safest place to leave something. No one has ever broken in and stolen a Pokémon.”
****“Ok,” I said. It sounded like a safe choice. “How did you find me?”
****“You had my bag with my Pokégear in it. I have software on it to track the Pokégear’s location, so I just had to check on the internet to see where you were. Then a Ranger let me use one of his Pokémon to fly here.”
****“Did the Ranger come with you?”
****“I don’t think so, but he said he had friends here who he would send in to help.”
****“The only people who came in were the Orion Defenders.”
****“Maybe they stopped the Rangers from getting in.” We made it to the edge of town, so we stopped to rest. “I almost forgot,” Meredith added. “You must have dropped this.” She handed me my Pokédex.
****“Thank you,” I said. I never noticed that it was missing. “Willow would have been so mad if I lost it.”
****“You know Professor Willow?”
****“Yeah, she’s the one who gave me Ecco.”
****“I got my Pokémon from her, too. But not because I wanted to become a trainer.” Meredith let our her only Pokémon, a pink creature with a confused look on its face.
****“Slowpoke,” Dexter explained when prompted. “The Dopey Pokémon. Surprisingly innovated designs are left in trails drawn by idle Slowpoke. It is theorized that if they could remember these powerful ideas, they could form a society to rival human beings.”
****“Willow gave it to me because it needed someone to look after it. It was injured by Team Rocket a few years ago,” Meredith explained. “I’ve been taking care of it since then. It’s probably ready to go back into the wild, but it doesn’t want to leave me.”
****“Koffing seems to like you, too,” I noted. “He’s never been that obedient before.”
****“I do seem to have a way with Pokémon,” she answered. “So, what are you planning to do with the egg?”
****It was a good question. I had plenty of time to think about it during my helicopter ride, and I had decided that I would bring it to the Ranger Union. It was too dangerous to hold on to, with both the Orions and the Rockets after it, even if I wanted to keep it.
****“I’m going to…”
****“Shhh!” Meredith cut me off. “Someone’s coming!” she whispered. “And it doesn’t seem good.”
****I looked down the street just as a man in red turned onto the road.
****“How did you know?” I whispered back. She lifted her necklace in response.
****Right. She was a fortune teller. It’s hard to remember, since she seems so normal most of the time.
****I peeked at the man again. He was wearing the red clothing of a Ranger. It was a relief to see one of the good guys for a change.
****“Let’s go,” I told Meredith. “We should give the egg to the Rangers. They’ll know what to do with it.” Meredith seemed hesitant, but she followed me.
****“Ranger!” I shouted. He looked at me and reached for a device near his belt. Now that we were coming closer, I could see that it was the same Ranger who was after the egg in Roothaven. He lifted the device to his mouth and said a few words, but I couldn’t hear what they were. Before he had reattached the device to his belt, over a dozen people had come out from behind or inside nearby buildings. They were dressed in plain clothes, and looked relatively unremarkable… except for the golden O-shaped badges they wore.
****They were Orions.
****And they had been waiting for us.
****“Hey, kids,” the Ranger told me as he took a step towards us. I have an offer for you…”
/dedication

[ImmunityBow]

I think the main issue with this segment would be that there's no driving action through the chapter. It's mostly exposition in the form of dialogue.

[Cyndadile]

I know. This one and the next are less action and more transitioning, a bit of explaining. And that's what I hate about it. It's boring to write and boring to read. I know that novels can't be all action, and this is, in a way, just a novel released a chapter at a time. But I'd still like to get all the explanations done in a fast, not-so-boring way that ties into the dramatic, action-y bits.
I've taken a creative writing class in High School, but we only got as far as short stories. In a short story, there are no pauses to explain what's going on. Its all a buildup to a climax, then it's over. When it comes to longer stories, like Topaz Adventure, I just don't know how to handle the evil middle bits. I've gotten some advice by reading the blog of my favorite author (http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/), but there are some times that I just can't figure out what to do. I think it's more of a "you have to find the answer yourself" kind of thing, but I could still use some help with it. It seems like this part of the story doesn't lend itself well to the whole "protagonist figures things out through observing things as he goes" part, since he really needs to find out...
that the Orions aren't evil, what Meredith's story is, how Meredith found him, and, most importantly, (super huge spoiler-mania)
why his long-distance girlfriend, Emily, joined the Rockets about the same time he joined the Orions. Yes, it may be corny, but it's how I want to play it. It's sad and emotional. Plus it allows for some complicated love-type-stuff between Tony and Meredith, and Tony and an Orion girl we haven't met yet. Sure, it's disgustingly romantic, cliche love story stuff, but it works. And, from a demographic standpoint, it could add to the range of the audience (not to be sexist, but stuff like this generally appeals to the female audience)
Also, he needs to
join the Orionsbefore episode 20.

And I'm terrible with dialogue. Anything longer than a sentence or so begins to sound forced and unnatural.

Stuff like this is why I want to find a good Creative Writing course at my College.

[Cyndadile]

This is only somewhat related to Topaz Adventures, but I figured this was the best place to ramble on about this. The first part is more related to college, and is more or less a "why I'm going to do what I'm about to do with this series" kind of thing. Then comes the "what's going to happen" part, which you can skip to if you'd like.

I started college last week, and it was a huge difference from High School. It seems like I have more work to do, and I plan to spend more time studying. On the bright side, the work is a lot funner than High School work, although there are always distractions that will be funner. Between schoolwork, projects, sleeping, the clubs I intend to get involved in, Topaz work, and a Minecraft server that I somehow ended up running PR for, I won't have nearly as much time as I used to. I don't know if this will change as the year progresses, but it probably will; there were a lot of things going on for freshmen during the first week that ate up my time. I think I'll have some time on the weekends, but I also still need to spend time with friends every once in a while. However much I hate it, my writing will probably be be a lower priority for a while. In particular, Topaz Adventures and a novel I wanted to write during my first year of college may not progress on the path I'd planned for them.
That doesn't mean I'm giving up on writing (sorry for getting your hopes up). I still love it, even though creativity often eludes me. I just may not be able to do as much of it as I'd hoped.

So, this is basically what is going to happen regarding Topaz Adventures:
-I might post them late. I don't want to do this often, because it means that I'll need to write faster to catch up. There is (almost) no way I'll miss a week entirely; it would mess up my story's structure. That would make me angry, and I'd start printing copies of the stories so I could tear them up in frustration. That's just wasteful.
-TA might have some quality issues. I might not have time to sit around editing them, so things could get a bit disgusting, especially in parts like 11 and 12 (I promise I'll try to improve them eventually). If there's anything that seems completely vile, or even just anything you think could use improvement, email me about it at jirachi.topaz@gmail.com. I won't get around to editing right away, but I think I'll have some time for it over Thanksgiving and Winter Breaks. I'll also try to stock up on future episodes at those times.
-EVERY installment of TA is a work in progress. I've said it about a billion times; I'd love any suggestions for improvements. Let me know what you think about my writing technique, character development, whatever. Post comments here, PM me, or send them to my email listed above. I can't improve my writing without knowing what's wrong. And if you don't think anything's wrong, or want to mention something that you think was good, tell me that, too! I need to know these things.
-I'm sure there was another thing, but I can't think of it right now.

Anyways, stay tuned for the 12th episode, which is even drier than the last one. Which is funny, because I wrote the first half while doing my laundry. See? Because laundry goes into a dryer... No one appreciates my sharp wit.
I promise Episode 13 will bring some action back to the series.

[ImmunityBow]

Well, good luck with all your college work!

Looks like you have the same kind of idea as when I wrote my Nanowrimo, just get the words out there. It's probably best idea since it keeps you more motivated than mulling over what you don't like.

[Cyndadile]

Silly rabbit, almost forgetting to post Topaz Adventures is for kids!

Part 12: Deciding Factor
****The Ranger took us back to the city. Several of the plainclothes Defenders stalked us from a distance. Some of them carried weapons, others just their Pokémon. The Ranger walked between us, confidant and smiling. Anyone else would have thought we were a couple of friends taking a stroll through the city, instead of being taken by force.
****“I’m sorry about your experiences with my companions,” the Ranger said. “You’ve got to understand that they didn’t want to bring you into this mess; they just wanted to get that egg back. Ophelia doesn’t take well to failure.”
****Meredith and I continued to walk beside him.
****“Great question,” he said to an imaginary active audience. “Ophelia is the leader of the Orion Defenders. We try to keep that knowledge private, since we don’t want Team Rocket to target her.”
****“Why are you telling us this if it’s so secret?” the Ranger said in a squeaky, high pitched voice that sounded kind of like a five year old girl. Meredith’s eyes narrowed and she clenched her fists, but she didn’t respond. I just hoped he was trying to emulate Meredith and not me.
****“Another great question, miss,” he answered. So he was going for Meredith after all. “I think we’ll find the answer here…” He put one arm around each of our necks and directed us towards an old building. He didn’t apply much pressure, but I could tell he’d be able to force us inside if he had to.
****The building was in poor shape. Its windows were boarded up, the roof was sagging, and the front steps were crumbling. It might have been a nice home a few decades ago, but now it looked like it could fall apart any second.
****As we came to the door, the Ranger put his eye up to a small glass circle in the center. The glass flashed white, and then we heard a mechanism unlocking. The Ranger pulled the door open for us and herded us inside.
****The interior of the building was a huge contrast to the outside. It was so clean that it was literally sparkling. The walls, floor, and counters were all made of white marble, and there was a huge golden fountain in the center of the room. Potted plants lined the edges of the room, and a giant golden “O” was embedded in the far wall.
****The Ranger led us to a small conference room and shut the door. This room was also made of white marble, but it had a grey carpet, a wooden table, and several cushioned chairs. The back wall held yet another golden “O”.
****“Have a seat,” the Ranger said. We did. Meredith leaned back and put her feet on the table in a lazy manner. I had to fight back a grin; I was impressed by her disrespect for the Orions. Of course, I wouldn’t do anything so rude to someone with a gang of gun-toting bad guys on their team, but I had to respect the girl’s audacity.
****“My name is Matthew,” said the Ranger. “And you must be Tony.” He tossed my Trainer Card onto the table. “We salvaged it from the Rocket’s hideout.” He turned to Meredith. “And you are…”
****Once it was clear that Meredith wasn’t answering, Matthew continued. “Well, there are a few things you need to know about the Orion Defenders…”
****Matthew went on to explain the story of the Orions. According to the Ranger, the Orion Defenders were established centuries ago to protect Pokémon from being exploited. In those times, people in Caldera and Kirant treated Pokémon like slaves. The Orions began to organize competitions that would bring people closer to their Pokémon. This competition eventually came to be today’s Pokémon League. The Orions also established the precursors to the Pokémon Rangers, people who would set an example for the world by forging a strong relationship with Pokémon. Over the years, the Pokémon League and Rangers spread to other lands as well.
****The Orion’s mission was largely successful, and the Orions were needed less and less. Eventually, only a few families still upheld the Orion Defenders’ mission.
****Then Team Rocket came to Caldera and Kirant. There were less than a dozen Orion Defenders at the time, but they knew they needed to act against Team Rocket. So, they began to recruit new members. They would only recruit members who had defied Team Rocket or who stood their ground against the Orions in battle. They kept the organization secret, so that the Rockets would be unprepared to face them. But their secrecy also aroused suspicion, causing people to mistakenly believe they were a band of criminals.
****The Defenders knew that they needed to move against the Rockets before the people found out too much, but they lacked the organization needed to prepare any long term plan.
****One of the older members, a woman named Ophelia, decided to hold a competition. The strongest member of the Orions would become the leader. Strength would be decided by a one-on-one Pokémon battle.
****Ophelia won, and began to structure the Orions. Recently, they began to go on undercover missions against the Rockets.
****That changed when the eggs came into play. The Orions basically declared an all-out war on Team Rocket in order to keep them from retaining all the eggs.
****At the end of the month, Ophelia plans to make her biggest move against Team Rocket. She hasn’t told anyone except the highest officers what she plans to do, but there are rumors that it has to do with a legendary Pokémon.
****“Tony, you stood up to Team Rocket, and it sounds like you’ve had some dealings with them before. And you,” he turned to Meredith, “several of the Defenders reported seeing a girl matching your description taking down a Rocket base in Hollowlog.”
****I arched an eyebrow at Meredith. We had met in Hollowlog, but she certainly didn’t seem like the kind of person who would face Team Rocket with just one Pokémon…
****When I met her eyes, the edges of her mouth curved up in a smile and she shrugged.
****“The Orion Defenders want both of you on our team. Will you join us against Team Rocket?” He tossed two of the Orions’ golden badges on the table.
****“What happens if we say no?” asked Meredith.
****“As long as you sign a contract not to reveal the Orions’ secrets, you can get up and leave. We won’t stop you. But we could really use some new trainers on our team.”
****I considered his offer for a few seconds. If he was lying about the Orions’ intentions, then I’d be just as bad as the Rockets. But if he was telling the truth…
****He had to be telling the truth. There has never been a corrupt Ranger; they can only bond with Pokémon by being honest and genuine. This guy was a Ranger, so if he said the Orions were the good guys, that the Orions wanted to stop Team Rocket, then he truly believed it.
****“I’ll join,” I said, about the same time that /Meredith said “no.” I reached for my Trainer Card and Orion Badge on the table as Meredith explained.
****“What you’re saying is good, but I can’t agree with your methods. People are afraid of the Orions, and that’s not right.”
****“I respect that,” said Matthew. “And Tony, I just have one more question; where is the egg?”
****Ah, yes. The egg. The source of my anxiety for the past several hours.
****“I don’t know,” I lied. “I dropped it when Team Rocket caught me.”
****Meredith’s face flickered with surprise for a second, but I don’t think Matthew noticed. I did believe that Matthew would do what was right, but that didn’t mean that all of the Orions shared his pure intentions. Every organization has its corruption. But I knew that I wanted to stop Team Rocket, and by joining the Orions I’d at least have some allies.
****If Matthew was disappointed, he didn’t let it show. “I expected as much,” he explained. “But welcome to the Orion Defenders. We’ll contact you through your Pokégear when we need you.”
****After Meredith signed a nondisclosure agreement, we left the room together.
****“I just don’t trust the Orions,” Meredith said.
****“I know. I don’t completely trust them either.” I opened the door out of the building for her. “But I think…”
****Team Rocket didn’t let me finish my thought. They blew open the front wall of the building, unleashing a shower of marble splinters flying through the air. I was between Meredith and the blast, so she didn’t get hit by the debris, but I fell forward as dozens of rock shards dug into my back.
****“Oh, there you are,” said the broken-nosed Rocketzilla. “We’ve been looking for you.”
Just wondering, in the phrase: “Matthew went on to explain the story of the Orions. According to the Ranger, the Orion Defenders were established centuries ago to protect Pokémon from being exploited,” would anyone have noticed the (unintentional) biblical connection if I had said “according to Matthew” instead of “according to the Ranger”?

[Cyndadile]

Wow, another 3 page one. And I wrote the entire thing on Monday. Skillz.
Also, no matter how hard I googled, I could not find anywhere that would tell me if marble was bulletproof. So just assume that it was thick enough to block the bullets.

Part 13: That'll Leave a Mark
****I don’t remember much after the wall went down. My back was torn to shreds by a bajillion shards of rock, so I guess my brain tried to block out the pain.
****Anyways, a couple of days later I woke up in a Pokémon Center. Apparently, Pokémon Centers are better equipped for tearing stones out of your back than a normal hospital is.
****My back ached slightly, but it didn’t really hurt. I was lying on my stomach, and Meredith stopped me when I tried to roll over. I found out later that she had been waiting there more or less the whole time I’d been out. I wasn’t sure what to think of that.
****“What happened?” I moaned.
****She told me.

****When my face hit the ground, I pushed myself back to my feet. I wobbled slightly, but I didn’t fall over. I put my hand up to my face, and it came away smeared with blood.
****“Bwoddy nose,” I mumbled. “I dink we’w eben now.”
****Meredith pulled me through the door as Rocketzilla raised his gun. I fell on my back, but my head landed in a patch of grass. I can only imagine how much pain my back was in.
****I heard bullets blasting into the front wall. Actually, Meredith heard it. I’m not sure how much I was registering at that point. If the wall had really been made of wood, I would have ended up in the morgue instead of the Pokémon center. However, the layer of marble on the other side of the wall held up to the battering.
****Of course, Rocketzilla wasn’t the only Rocket there. At least a dozen other Rockets stood outside the hole in the wall.
****“Koffin, swokescween,” I said as I released Celsinge. The lion cub shot me a puzzled look before jumping into battle. Each of the Rockets let out their own Pokémon. There were a few Koffing, several Grimer, and a bunch of blue, batlike Pokémon.

****“Blue bats?” I asked. “What kind of Pokémon looks like that?”
****“I’ll see if I can find it,” Meredith said. She pulled my Pokédex from a pile of junk stacked next to my bed.
****“Here it is,” she said after a moment.
****“Zubat,” Dexter said. “Even though it has no eyes, it can sense obstacles using ultrasonic waves it emits from its mouth.”
****“A Pokémon that uses sound? That would be cool,” I said.
****“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Meredith added.
****“Must be rare.”
****“Probably. I’ve only seen Team Rocket have one. Well, where was I? Oh, right…”

****“You’w nawt Koffin,” I said. “Eggo, uwse wadder gun!”
****Celsinge took it in stride and let loose a stream of flame, and one of the Rockets’ Koffings took the blast in the face. The other flying Pokémon floated up over the blast.
****“Tony, come on!” Meredith said as I had just got my feet under me. She pushed me back through the door as Rocketzilla came out through the wall. I collapsed to the floor again as the broken-nosed Rocket’s gun let out another stream of bullets. Again, the marble of the wall endured the hit, but cracks began to form around the holes.
****“Come on!” Meredith repeated as she dragged me farther into the building. There was another door nearby, and I slid along the smooth floors into the room.
****As soon as Celsinge dashed inside, Meredith shut the door and turned on the lights.
****“Ooh, a gun!” I exclaimed as I claimed one of the several mops in the closet.
****“It’s not a gun,” Meredith explained as she tore the cleaning instrument out of my hands.
****“Be cawefuw, the safdey’s off!” I shouted.
****Meredith looked around the closet, taking inventory. “We don’t have much to work with here, so I need you to snap out of it,” she said. She made me sit up on the floor and tore my shirt off. “This might hurt.”
****She pulled a Super Potion out of her backpack and sprayed it onto my back. My skin turned red and raw, and I started to scream. Meredith had to hold my hands down so that I couldn’t scratch at my back.

****“Hold on. You expect me to believe that you were able to hold down both my hands without help?”
****“Why is that so hard to believe?” Meredith said defensively. “Because I’m a girl?”
****“No, because I weigh at least 30 or 40 pounds more than you. I probably could have crushed you.”
****“Well, only your left arm could really fight back. I only needed to hold onto your pinky for the right arm.”
****I brought my right arm around in front of my face. “You broke my finger?!?” I exclaimed.
****“Um. No?” I began to protest, but she cut me off. “Who’s telling the story here?” she said.

****Once the Potion had set in, my mind was a bit clearer. At least, Meredith thought I seemed a bit more coherent and I can somewhat remember fragments of what happened next.
****Meredith tried to come up with a plan while I sat with the handle of my mop facing the door. There were sounds of fighting outside. Something slammed against the door.
****“Come in and I’ll shoot,” I threatened, waving my mop around. There was another thud. “You asked for it,” I said as I threw open the door.
****“No!” Meredith said.
****“Pow!” I shouted as I slammed the handle of the broom down on a Rocket Grunt’s head. “Lupine, go!” I yelled as I released the little wolf. “Remember Fernando!”
****I – or at least Meredith – got a good look at the scene as Lupine began to use double team. There were about 15 Rockets, including Rocketzilla and the one I had knocked out in front of our door. They were facing off against Matthew the Ranger, a young man in an Orion vest who I recognized as the secretary from the front room, and two plainclothes Orions, a middle-aged man and woman. There were sirens off in the distance, but we were at the outskirts of town and it could take minutes for them to arrive.
****The Orions were losing, as was their building. In addition the hole in the front wall, the plants had been torn out of their pots and the fountain was leaking all over the floor.
****Meredith took all that in in the few seconds she had before the copies of Lupine lining the floor dissolved into mist. It was impossible to see more than a couple feet in front of you, and people started coughing on the fog. Celsinge took the cue and leaped into the fray, and Rockets yelped in pain and surprise as their liar liar pants caught on fire.
****“Ecco, deal with the Koffing!” I said as I let Echoise out of his pokéball. The small dolphin slid along the wet floor into the mist just as Lupine returned.
****Of course, I didn’t know at the time that Zubat didn’t have to see to attack. Several of them dove at Meredith and I while others began to clear away the mist with their wings.
****“Pow, pow, pow,” I shouted with insane glee as I swung my mop around. Meredith took my right hand – making no effort to avoid my broken pinky – and dragged me into the misty front room and over to the front desk. The rest of the Orions were gathered there, crouching behind the marble barrier.
****“You four are the only people here!” Meredith whispered in disbelief.
****“More Orions were outside on duty, but they were ambushed,” Matthew explained. “Now, we need to get out of here before the police show up.”
****“Let me handle it,” Meredith said. “Ecco,” she whispered into the clearing mist as she released her own Pokémon. Ecco slid towards us, Celsinge riding on his back.
****“Ok. Ready?” she asked. I nodded as I returned my Pokémon to their pokéballs. Meredith pulled on my hand and we both stood up.
****The mist was completely clear, and there were no Pokémon in sight. Just 14 charred Rockets with guns, Rocketzilla standing behind them.
****“Giving up?” Rocketzilla asked.
****“I dunno,” I said. “Ask her.” I jabbed a finger at Meredith, leaned back against the wall, and immediately regretted it. This part I do remember; my back felt like it was on fire and I collapsed to the ground. Apparently, this was when I finally passed out.
****“Confusion!” Meredith shouted. The Rockets rocked back as Meredith’s Slowpoke unleashed a blast of psychic energy. While the Rockets were dazed, Matthew picked me up and carried me outside. The building collapsed as we left.

****“Then we brought you here. Matthew left to destroy what was left of the Orion’s information in the building,” Meredith finished.
****“Wow. That’s quite a story I missed.”
****“Yeah.”
****“How did Team Rocket find us?”
****“I almost forgot,” Meredith answered. “They must have put some sort of tracking chip into my Pokégear when they caught you. The Orions’ secretary was able to remove it and destroy it.”
****“So we should be safe now.” Meredith nodded.
****We sat in silence for a few minutes more.
****“How long until my back heals?” I finally asked Meredith.
****“Well,” she said. “Anything’s possible, but Nurse Joy thinks that you’ll probably have the scars indefinitely.”
****“You mean my back won’t heal completely?”
****“Not naturally,” Meredith answered, with the enigmatic tone in her voice that only a fortune teller can replicate. “But I hear chicks dig scars,” she added with a smile.
****The following day, Nurse Joy let me go. My back still hurt when I moved, but it wasn’t terrible.
****“Never sleep on your back,” ordered Nurse Joy, handing me a list of instructions, a bottle of pills, and a bottle of lotion. “And follow these instructions every day. You’ll need someone to help you apply the lotion and change your shirt.”
****“I’ll help him,” said Meredith, which I thought was awfully nice for someone who I only recently met. In fact, I might have found it suspicious if the painkillers weren’t so strong.
****We left the Pokémon Center just as a familiar face arrived.
****“Tony!” yelled Emily, and she ran up the sidewalk to me. I felt a smile crawling up my face. “I came as soon as I heard! Are you ok?”
****As she approached, something glittered on her chest, just above here heart. Meredith’s prediction from back in the swamp suddenly made sense. “Whichever one you choose, you will have chosen wrong.”
****I let out a gasp of pain as my girlfriend’s hands wrapped around my back, but it was worth it. She kissed me and leaned back, relieving the pressure on my back.
****I looked down again, just to be sure. Emily wore the red, “R”-shaped badge of Team Rocket.
Stay tuned for next week’s awkward episode, “Part 14: Well, This is Awkward.”

[Cyndadile]

A couple announcements:
Topaz Adventures got artsy:
http://cyndadile.webs.com/Topaz%20Adventures%20Banner%20Clipped.png
This is what happens when you give me photoshop. I make things.
Also, Topaz Adventure got officially renamed Topaz Adventures, because I've been calling it that for a while and only just realized that the thread didn't have the S. It was easier to rename the thread than change the image, so I did that.
You may have noticed (but probably not) that I've removed the list of links to each of the TA episodes from the first post.
"Oh no!" you might say. "How can I possibly enjoy life if I can't easily access every TA episode from one convenient location?" Well worry not, my friends, for you won't have to wait long! On December 2nd, Topaz Adventure's first season will draw to a close. I'll compile all the episodes and upload them as a nice little PDF. Right now, I'm torn between taking a break after the season is over or just continuing along with an episode a week. If I decide to take a break from the series, it'll be a short one, and it will be because I'm working on a larger writing project (one that I should probably start right about now, actually).

[Cyndadile]

Part 14: Well, This Is Awkward
****Something told me that the whole Rocket-Orion thing was going to put a serious damper on our relationship.
****“Are you alright now?” asked Emily, squeezing me tighter. I cringed. “Your back seems funny.”
****“Don’t…” I began. Emily lifted up the bottom of my shirt and gasped. She looked a little green.
****“Oh. I didn’t know it was that bad.” She moved her hands up to my unmarred shoulders. “I missed you.”
****“I missed you, too,” I said, but I didn’t meet her eyes.
****Emily stepped back, a look of concern on her face. “What’s wrong?”
****“Nothing,” I lied. “Hey, can you help me find a place to stay for the night? We can talk later.”
****Emily didn’t seem pleased, but she nodded. “I saw a place on the way here.”
****Once I had checked into a hotel, Emily, Meredith and I went to my room. Both of the girls helped me carry my things, since I wasn’t in any shape to be wearing a backpack.
****“If you need me,” Meredith said, scribbling a number on some hotel stationary, “just call.” Then she left us alone in my room.
****“What did you want to talk about?” Emily asked once the door shut behind Meredith.
****“Well, some things have changed since we last saw each other,” I began. I had no idea how to say this. I mean, I’ve never been in a situation like this before. I doubt many people have. “Since I left Neo Bay, I’ve met a lot of people, and I’ve been in some difficult situations.”
****“Are you cheating on me?” Emily interrupted.
****I blinked in surprise. “What? No! I’d never do that! Why would you assume…”
****“Well, you were here with another girl,” she waved towards the door, “you won’t look me in the eyes, and you’re talking about ‘meeting other people.’ What else would it be?”
****“No, Meredith and I aren’t… She’s just a friend. That’s not it. It’s just that…” I was having trouble finding the right words. I blame the pain drugs.
****I reached into my pocket and withdrew my Orion badge.
****Emily stared at the badge for a minute, then glanced at her own badge. “Oh. I guess that does make things complicated,” she admitted.
****Complicated indeed.
****We talked about it, like civilized adults. I told her why I joined the Orions, and she told me why she joined the Rockets. I’m not exactly sure when our discussion devolved into an argument, but it was the biggest argument we’d ever had. It was ugly. Turns out, according to Emily, that the Rockets might be devils, but the Orions sure ain’t angels. I know that not all of the Orions could be as good as the Ranger. But it was disturbing to hear about some of the destruction people had caused in the name of the Orion Defenders.
****Maybe Meredith had made the right choice by staying out of it altogether.
****The world isn’t black and white. It’s full of gray.
****And that gray part is a sneaky little jerk who’ll stab you in the back at the first opportunity.
****By the end of the fight, we were both tired and frustrated. I was still angry at Emily for siding with Team Rocket.
****But I still loved her. And she stayed by my side.
****Emily helped me wash my wounded back and apply the special lotion, and I got my first look at the damage.
****Super Potions were never meant for human use. In addition to their healing properties, they slow bleeding, and I would probably have died of blood loss if Meredith hadn’t used the Potion. But human skin doesn’t react well to the healing ingredients.
****When Emily removed the bandages I was wrapped in and held up a mirror, it was hard to identify what I was seeing. My back was riddled with cuts, gashes, and puncture wounds. It looked more like a range of mountains and valleys than a slab of skin. Several of the larger cuts had stiches.
****But that wasn’t the worst part. My skin was turning green anywhere that the potion could have entered my body. There were patches of green around each of the large gashes, and little spots around where smaller splinters of rock must have landed. None of them were bleeding, but several were excreting a yellow slime. Who would have thought the human body could look so inhuman.
****Emily’s a strong girl, and she must have had an iron stomach or something because she didn’t lose her lunch until after she finished applying the lotion. I tried to help her, but every time I looked in the mirror I got queasy.
****When Emily finished with the lotion, I swallowed one of the pain pills and wrapped a new bandage around myself while Emily made use of the hotel’s complimentary bottle of mouthwash.
****“Do you mind if I stay here tonight?” asked Emily. “I mean, I’m not sure if we’re still going to be… us.”
****In response, I kissed her. Usually, I would have thought twice before kissing a girl who just puked, but those drugs kicked in fast. “Things have changed between us. But that doesn’t mean that we’ve changed. I still love you.”
****“I love you, too,” she answered.
****For a strong person, both physically and mentally, Emily could be very gentle when she needed to be. We spent the night together, talking, laughing, and doing other things with each other. We showed each other our Pokémon, told stories, played games, and enjoyed each other’s company. And until we woke up in the morning, I didn’t once think about the Orions and Rockets.
****Emily slept on the couch. Normally, I would have made her take the bed, but my back would have made it too uncomfortable to sleep. Even on the bed, I had trouble getting to sleep. It wasn’t because of how complicated things were getting; it was just because I couldn’t get comfortable lying on my stomach. Eventually, I just gave up on comfort, closed my eyes, and waited for sleep to take me.
****“RING, RING, RIIIIIIING!” Emily and I both woke up as our pokégears started ringing at the same time. My neck felt stiff from lying awkwardly on the pillow. Emily groaned and turned over but didn’t get up. I grabbed my pokégear and tossed Emily’s to her.
****“Hello,” I mumbled into my pokégear’s mouthpiece.
****“Route 59. Now. Be prepared for battle,” came Matthew the Ranger’s voice. Then he hung up.
****“Good morning,” I said into the gear’s mouthpiece. “How are you? I’m feeling awful, thanks for asking.” I put the gear down and turned to face Emily. She had already gotten up and was pulling on clothes.
****“I’ve got to go,” she said.
****“Route 59,” I said. It wasn’t a question.
****She nodded and stuffed the rest of her things into her backpack. I started packing too, although it was extremely difficult since my back would scream in pain whenever I bent over. Emily helped me change into a new shirt. I fumbled with my backpack until I was able to hang it over my shoulder without it touching my back.
****As we left the building, I took Emily’s left hand in my right. And together we walked to Route 59.
And thus ends my first attempt at incorporating romance into a story without having any romantic experience. Please let me know how I did. Like Parts 11 and 12, I'm not especially impressed with this one. And it took me way too long to write.

[Cyndadile]

Heyo! It’s a pun!

Part 15: Friendly Rivalry
****When we arrived, the sun still hadn’t risen. Emily and I sauntered over to the circle of light from a few flashlights. The Rockets and Orions had a few Pokémon out, but they weren’t fighting. Instead, they were standing in the middle of the road, in a circle around a frightened old man. I have to say, I was impressed that people weren’t strangling each other. There were five Rockets and five Orions, not including Emily and me. The only people I recognized were Matthew the Ranger, Henry the Rocket, and Rocketzilla the Flatnose.
****“Hello, boys,” Emily said cheerfully to the group. “What’s going on here?”
****I went up to the closest Rocket and tapped him on the head. “Duck,” I said, as I continued down the line. “Duck, duck…” I paused behind the towering form of Rocketzilla. “Goose!” I shouted. I had to jump to reach his head.
****Rocketzilla and the rest of the Rockets glared at me. The Orions weren’t amused, either. The old man in the middle just looked confused.
****“Spoil sports,” I said, returning to my place beside Emily. She patted my shoulder reassuringly.
****“Why are you with this guy?” asked Henry, jabbing his thumb at me.
****“Hey, it’s not nice to point,” I said, wagging my finger at him.
****“He’s just a nosy twerp. And he’s an Orion!” Henry considered, paying me no attention.
****I burst out laughing. “Me? Nosy?” I managed to sputter between bursts of laughter. “Have you looked in a mirror lately? You’re the one with the giant nose!” I finished, poking Henry on the nose. He swatted my hand away.
****“Tony, are you on some kind of medication?” asked Matthew.
****“Yassuh,” I said, my fits of giggles coming to an abrupt end.
****“I’m sorry, but you won’t be much use to us if…” Matthew began.
****“Why are you hanging out with one of the Rocket’s enemies?” Henry demanded of Emily.
****In response, she kissed me. It was pretty intense, and it went on long enough to make everyone present feel uncomfortable.
****Well, not everyone. Emily and I were feeling quite comfortable.
**** Once Henry had cleared his throat a few hundred times, Emily and I separated.
****“Well then,” I said a bit too loudly. “Will someone please tell my girlfriend and me why we were called here at this ungodly hour?
****“We received intelligence that the Rockets were moving to claim an artifact called the ‘Rivalry Orb,’” Matthew explained. “We think that…”
****I was feeling a bit grumpy. It wasn’t my fault; they’d woken me up at four o’ clock. It was absurd. “Blah, blah, blah, I don’t care. Cliffnotes version?”
****The old man in the center of the circle spoke up. “These gentlemen want my glass sphere thing,” he explained, waving a hand at the Rockets. “And these gentlemen,” he motioned towards the Orions, “don’t want those gentlemen to get it.”
****“This dude knows how to give a mission briefing,” I told Matthew. “And what about you?” I asked the old man. “What do you want to happen to this Orb?”
****“I don’t care,” said the old man. “More trouble than it’s worth, what with all these people getting into a fuss about it. Anyone who wants it can have it.” He pulled the Orb from a pocket of his jacket. It had a funny design, reminiscent of a black Pokémon and a white Pokémon curled together.
****“Nifty,” I said. “If you don’t want it, can I have it?”
****“Sure,” the old man said, and he tossed me the Orb.
****“Problem solved!” I said. Then a swarm of Team Rocket’s Koffing filled the air. The Orions released their Pokémon as well.
****“Problem… not solved?” I guessed as I released Ecco into the fray and stepped back into the shadows. Even in the darkness, I was able to make out the forms of people and Pokémon. All of the flashlights were on the Pokémon, making it easy to tell what was going on.
****For a creature without legs or wings, Ecco is a beast when it comes to getting around. He jumped into the air and started smacking several Koffing around with his tail.
****“Seriously? Nothing but Koffing?” Emily said with exasperation as she released her own Pokémon.
****Emily had three Pokémon. Her first was Ampure, a cute, electric-typed lemur. I had met Ampure when she first received it. Ampure was an excitable little monkey, but he had some issues with keeping static electricity out of his fur.
****Emily’s second Pokémon was Gashawk, a bird Pokémon. She met Gashawk on Route 50 when it was still a Fincherp. Gashawk was a proud Pokémon, and she didn’t seem to get along well with other Pokémon.
****Her third Pokémon was Embear, a small, fire-typed bear cub. Emily met the cub in Pinedale Forest. It was a playful bear, and she really annoyed Gashawk.
****It was the latter of these two Pokémon that Emily released. Gashawk dove at Ecco, but the dolphin rolled away.
****“Get Embear!” I said. Even with my clouded mind, I was pretty sure that water attacks were good against fire types. Ecco’s water gun took Embear in the stomach, and Embear rolled over backwards. Emily promptly switched Ampure in for Embear and ordered it to get Ecco.
****“Lupine, get us out of here!” I said, releasing my little wolf. Lupine, as he had done many times before, covered the ground with duplicates of himself and dissolved them into mist. I made a mental note to start forming new battle techniques. I was already getting a bit predictable.
****As Emily’s Gashawk began clearing the air, Ecco hopped onto the wolf cub’s back and they retreated back to me. Together, we ran away from the circle of Rockets and Orions.
****It’s not that I didn’t want to fight. On the contrary; I was perfectly willing to take on six Rockets, with or without the help of other Orions. I knew enough about Koffing to know how to best take them out. Then I’d only have to deal with some Grimer, Henry’s Mermeidon and Gyrados, and Emily’s two remaining Pokémon.
****But I knew that I only stood a chance if I fought them on my own terms. So I ran, completely confidant that the Rockets would be close behind. I ran, my left hand gripping the Rivalry Orb, my first two Pokémon following close behind me. I ran back to Kalypso City.
****The outskirts of Kalypso are not especially nice. There was trash everywhere, and it was probably where they filmed every movie scene that took place in a dark alley. It was revolting and creepy. In fact, I’m pretty sure there’s no place more disgusting than Kalypso except for Unova, a country on another continent, where the Pokémon are apparently made of garbage.
****Although there were streetlights every few yards, the roads were shrouded in shadows. Most of the lamps held broken bulbs. I would have been afraid to go through this part of town at night if I hadn’t known that I had the Orion Defenders following somewhere behind me.
****I looked down every dark alley I passed until I saw one that was empty and ran down it. It was a dead end. Perfect. The Rockets would only have one way in and out.
****I turned and leaned against the wall, waiting for Team Rocket to catch up.
Meh. Next one should be better.

[Cyndadile]

Part 16: Coming Apart
****Koffing are pretty simple creatures. In my experience, they get pissed off easily. And when they get angry, they get disobedient. If the Rockets were half as mean to their Pokémon as I’ve heard they were, it shouldn’t be too hard to trick the Koffing into doing what I wanted.
****“Can you do it?” I asked my own Koffing once I had explained my plan.
****“Huh huh,” Koffing answered, bobbing up and down.
****“Will you do it?”
****“Huh,” he wheezed, shaking back and forth.
****Shoot. This would only work if I could get someone on the inside.
****“How about this,” I told him. “If you do this, I won’t ask you to battle for a whole week. You can just sit in your pokéball and sulk.”
****Koffing considered it for a moment, then nodded.
****“Great,” I said, and Koffing floated up over the top of the building beside me. Once he left, I opened the lid of the dumpster at the end of the alley. I was relieved to see that it was empty; I didn’t want to end up covered in trash.
****It took longer than I expected for the Rockets and Orions to catch up. I guess the Orions were probably trying to hold the Rockets back so I could get away with the orb, but the Rockets managed to catch up eventually.
****“Give us the orb!” demanded Rocketzilla, a couple dozen Koffing floating around him. The other three Rockets with him formed in a line on either side of him, blocking the entire alley entrance. Emily and Henry were nowhere to be seen, and the Orions were similarly MIA.
****“Really? No banter? Just a simple demand? You’re taking all the fun out of beating you up!”
****“Give. Us. The. Orb,” Rocketzilla repeated.
****“Can you ask those Koffing to get out of here?” I asked, ignoring his demand. “They really kind of stink.” The Koffing stared blankly at me.
****“Last chance. Give us the…”
****“You’re really sounding like a broken broken broken record. My answer is no. No orb for you.”
****“Get him,” Rocketzilla told the swarm of Koffing.
****“Ecco,” I said, and the dolphin sprayed a sort of shield of water. Anything that got too close would be knocked back, but it didn’t really hurt the Koffing. A few of the more persistent Koffing made it past the water.
****“Lupine,” I said, and the wolf slapped the Koffing with his vine whip. The Koffing were forced back out of the dome of water Ecco was creating.
****“You little…” Rocketzilla pulled his giant gun out from under his coat.
****“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I said.
****“And why is that?”
****Celsinge came up behind him and spat a couple of embers into his shoes. Rocketzilla swore and dropped the gun, giving Celsinge a chance to push it away.
****That’s the great thing about bad guys. Even when they’re not pouring out their “brilliant” plans in excruciating detail, they’re so easy to distract.
****Sorry. I really shouldn’t stereotype like that. But it’s true.
****Rocketzilla leaned over to grab his gun, but Celsinge had already pushed it out of reach. While Celsinge kept him entertained, I focused my attention on harassing the Koffing.
****“Seriously? There are, like, fifty of you against two of my Pokémon. You guys are pretty lame.” The Koffing were not fazed. Shoot. If I couldn’t get them angry, I’d be done for, especially since the other Orions hadn’t show up yet.
****I picked up a rock and threw it at one of them. It turned towards me and charged.
****“Lupine!” I shouted as I threw a rock at another. Lupine smacked the first back as the second one came at me. “Koffing, go!”
****One of the Koffing began flashing and swelling up to explode. The other Koffing followed suit. Rocketzilla turned away from chasing Celsinge to watch the lightshow.
****“No! Stop!” he screamed. I turned and jumped into the dumpster, and looked out at the crowd of Koffing until I recognized the one who had started it. I returned him, along with my other Pokémon, to their pokéballs and pulled down the lid of the dumpster just in time.
****BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM. The dumpster rocked back and forth a little as each of the Koffing detonated, one at a time.
****“Nice one, Tony,” said a female voice. I lifted the top of the dumpster and got out. Emily was standing at the end of the alley, the only one of the Rockets who didn’t look a bit too crispy. “But can you please give me the orb now?”
****“This orb?” I drew the Rivalry Orb out of my backpack and held it on the tips of my left hand’s fingers. “Sorry, sweetie. I can’t do that.” I let Ecco back out of his Pokéball as she released two of her Pokémon: Gashawk, and Ampure.
****“Ecco, get Gashawk!”
****“Ampure, shock Ecco!”
****Ecco jumped around, avoiding Ampure’s bolts of electricity. If one of them landed, it wouldn’t end well for him. But water isn’t the only thing that’s weak to electricity…
****Ecco leapt onto Gashawk’s back and bit the bird’s feathers.
****“Squaaaa!” yelled Gashawk, trying to shake off Ecco. Ecco let go right before Ampure let loose another strike.
****The electrical blast hit Gashawk in the back, frying the poor bird.
****“Gashawk, come back,” said Emily.
****“You guys need to work on aiming,” I noted.
****“Oh, shut up,” she advised. I smiled at her and switched Celsinge in for Ecco.
****“Do a barrel roll,” I told Celsinge. Celsinge raised a lion-y eyebrow, but rolled at Ampure, coating her fur in fire as she did so. The flaming lion hit Ampure in the stomach and continued rolling over and past him.
****“I’ll take it from here,” said another voice. Henry marched around the corner.
****“Henry, you’re supposed to be holding back the Orions!” cried Emily.
****“Couldn’t have held them for much longer,” he whispered, soft enough that it was clear that he didn’t want me to hear, but loud enough that I heard it anyways. “I shook them off a few blocks away.”
****“Couldn’t hold off a couple of Orions, eh?” I said. “Meanwhile, I’ve knocked out most of your guys.” I held the orb up and put my right hand against the wall. “This is getting a bit too easy.” I leaned against my right arm, cocking my head to the side and doing my best to wear an condescending smile. “Actually…” I began, before cutting off into a less family-friendly word.
****I took my weight off of my right hand as my broken right pinky started screaming in pain. I cupped my pinky in my left hand and noticed that everyone was staring at me in horror.
****Wait, not at me. At the ground. I looked down.
****Lying at my feet were shards of glass from what used to be the Rivalry Orb. I must have dropped it when the nerves in my right hand caught on fire.
****Rocketzilla let out an exhausted sigh, then lifted his gun. He’d recovered it after the explosion. “Well,” he said, “we can’t get the orb anymore. But at least we can finally take you out.”
****“No!” said Emily. She pushed the gun’s barrel away from me.
****“The girl’s right, Larry.” Matthew approached from around the corner, holding a much smaller gun.
****“About time you showed up,” I grunted.
****“Get out of here, Larry. Show’s over.” Rocketzilla glared at Matthew, but backed away.
****“Let’s go, guys,” he said, and the Rockets departed. Only Emily, Matthew, Celsinge, Ampure and I remained in the alley.
****Matthew looked down at the Rivalry Orb’s shards, then up at me. “Well, at least that’s over with,” he said. He turned to Emily and looked her up and down, then nodded. “You did good against us back there,” he said. The Orions could use someone like you.” He handed her a business card and left.
****Emily watched him go, then tossed the card off to the side. She walked down the alley to me and stood up on her toes. Her lips were soft and cool against mine.
****“You know, honey,” she said when we separated. “you can still join the winning side.”
****“Did I miss something? I’m pretty sure the score is Orions: one, Rockets: zero. And I beat you guys by messing up!”
****“Well,” she said in a flirty tone, “If you change your mind, you've got our badge.” She turned and walked away.
****“I love you,” I called.
****I thought I heard her say, “I love you, too.”
****Then she was gone.
What good is the internet if I can’t do important research? In the course of making this story, I needed to find the answer to the questions in the spoiler below, but none of my search results gave what I wanted in sufficient detail.
How explosion-resistant are dumpsters?
Can a lion raise an eyebrow?
How much does it hurt to lean on a broken pinky?
Writing is HARD. Stupid research.

[ImmunityBow]

For the pinky I think it depends on how broken the pinky is. If it's clean broken you don't feel it at all, so only when you rub against the break will it hurt.

[Cyndadile]

That's a good point. I never really went into detail about how it got broken, either. Maybe Meredith stomped on it. Then it might be messed up enough to hurt.
Either way, it has been written. People will have to suspend disbelief. Hollywood has done crazier stuff.

[Cyndadile]

Just a bit of training. Nothing spectacular. Although I do have something quite spectacular (I think) planned, several episodes down the line.

Part 17: No Train, No Gain
****Jane, Kalypso City’s Gym Leader, was going to be my toughest challenge yet. So there was no point in winging it; I needed a solid technique to stand a chance. It turns out that my back got badly infected, so the Pokémon Center’s Nurse made me promise to stay in Kalypso for at least a week, so that they could make sure the infection didn’t spread.
****It was probably from the dumpster. Who knows what disgusting stuff goes into those.
****Anyways, it’s hard to get better when you’re training alone. So, I asked for a bit of help…
****“Ten laps around the pond!” Meredith ordered. She joined Lupine, Celsinge, and I as we ran around the pond. Ecco swam beside us, flapping his tail wildly as he tried to keep up with Celsinge. Meredith’s Slowpoke stood off to the side, his eyes not quite focused on a pebble right in front of him, and Koffing watched us from above the pond, watching us train.
****Every day we started our training by running laps and stretching. It was a good warm-up, and I’ve learned from experience that it’s always good to be able to outrun your enemy.
****It also really bruised my ego. Ecco and Celsinge were the fastest, with Lupine not far behind. By the end of our ten laps, Meredith was about a lap behind Lupine, and I was a lap behind her.
****Every day, I get beat by a girl. I know that shouldn’t bother me, but it does.
****“You fell behind again,” Meredith said as I slowed to a halt. I was feeling out of breath, but Meredith seemed to be perfectly fine.
****“Not my fault,” I managed to gasp between breaths. “Bad back.”
****She shook her head, her long hair concealing a half-smile, then sat down and started stretching. I focused on leg stretches, since my legs start cramping up easily.
****“So, what are we doing today?” I asked. “Working on strength? Endurance? Defense?”
****“I was thinking we could do some strategy. I think we’ve got your Pokémon’s basic moves down. We just need to figure out how to put them together.”
****“Sounds good.” Meredith finished her stretches, then pulled some supplies out of her backpack. She put four stakes in a rectangle in the grass and tied some string between them.
****“This is a regulation-sized Pokémon League court,” Meredith explained. She took a couple of orange bottles out of her bag, then studied my face. “Is something wrong?”
****“What?”
****“You flinched just now. When I took out the Super Potions.”
****I cringed again when she said the words, but I turned it into a shrug. “No, nothing’s wrong,” I lied. Frowning, she watched me for a second more, then took off her coat and used it to cover the Potions.
****Bless her. I can’t even remember the incident at the Orion’s base, and I still have nightmares about that awful Potion.
****“We’ll do three matches,” she said. “Slowpoke isn’t in the mood to battle, so we’ll rotate with Ecco, Lupine, and Celsinge. Since you’re the one who we’re trying to improve, I’ll choose the one that’s strong against yours.”
****“Ok,” I agreed. “Let’s start with you, Ecco!”
****“Eeee-oooo,” said Ecco.
****“Ready?” asked Meredith. “Begin.”
****“Supersonic!” I told Ecco. Ecco let out a high-pitched squeal and rolled out of the way of a series of Lupine’s razor leaves. Lupine’s eyes crossed for a moment as the sound waves flowed over him, but he shook it off.
****“Switch to water pulse,” I said. Rings of water pulsed out of Ecco’s mouth, accompanied by pulses of high-pitched sound.
****“It won’t help much to use water move against a grass type,” Meredith chided. “Vine whip!” Lupine tried to grab Ecco with a vine that came darting out of the ring of leaves around his neck, but Ecco rolled off to the side. Lupine’s other vine approached from the other side and closed in on Ecco.
****Ecco tried to jump up and out of the way, but he wasn’t fast enough. Lupine grabbed him and lifted him into the air.
****“Water sport!” I said.
****“You know water sport is only good against fire-types, right?” Meredith said as Ecco began shaking water out of its pores.
****“You ever try to hold a slimy fish?” I asked. Ecco squirmed a little and fell right out of Lupine’s grip.
****“Hm,” Meredith grunted. “Hold him down and get closer,” she told Lupine.
****Lupine tried to hold Ecco an place, but Ecco wet himself (with water sport, not urine) and slipped away again. Growling, Lupine jumped closer and tried to bite Ecco.
****Ecco bit back. His mouth closed over Lupine’s snout, forcing it closed.
****“Now, use supersonic!” I said. Ecco unleashed a pulse of sound into Lupine’s face, and the wolf cub’s eyes glazed over.
****“Shake him off!” Meredith ordered. Lupine hesitated for a moment, then shook his head back and forth.
****“Let go and get his tail!” I said. On the next shake of Lupine’s head, Ecco let go and flew upwards. On his decent, he bit at Lupine’s tail and held on to the bushy green fur.
****As Ecco bit down, Lupine yelped and came back to full attention. He tried to spin around to bite Ecco, but Ecco curled up his tail so that Lupine couldn’t quite reach.
****“Slap him,” I said. Lupine surged at Ecco again, and this time Ecco uncurled himself and hit Lupine in the face with his tail.
****This went on for about ten seconds before Lupine snarled and snatched Ecco’s tail in his mouth. He flung the dolphin into the grass and leapt on top of him, growling.
****“Slide out of there!” I told Ecco. Ecco used water sport once again to become slippery enough to slide over the grass. Lupine spun around and pinned Ecco down again, holding Ecco’s fins down with his paws.
****“Use scratch!” said Meredith. Lupine’s paw lashed out at Ecco.
****“Growl at him!” I said. Ecco didn’t hesitate in letting out the closest thing he could to a growl.
****“Oooo-eee-OOO,” he said.
****“Grrrr…” Lupine growled back.
****“Eee!” Ecco said.
****“Bark!” answered Lupine.
****“Eee!” said Ecco.
****Lupine scratched Ecco again and opened his mouth to bark again.
****“Water gun!” I said before he had a chance. Ecco sprayed water into Lupine’s mouth, causing Lupine go back off and spit out the water.
****I would have been disgusted too, if Ecco had spat into my mouth.
****Lupine quickly recovered and, snarling, leaped back at Ecco. Ecco was ready for him. Ecco slashed his tail through the air, and it impacted on Lupine’s stomach. Lupine was sent flying back and Ecco pursued. Ecco’s tail almost seemed to shine as it came downon Lupine’s back.
****“Ar!” Lupine yelped.
****“Alright, that’s enough,” said Meredith, stepping forward. Lupine hopped back to her. “Let’s give Ecco and Lupine a chance to recover before our next battle.” I took a few steps back as she sprayed some of the first Super Potion on the two Pokémon. “That was a creative use of water sport, but I doubt it will be very useful against Jane. Ecco’s maneuverability is really improving, and his close combat skills are pretty solid, but I think he needs to work on his long-range aiming.”
****I nodded. “I noticed that Lupine’s reactions were slow enough to give Ecco a good opening. I think that’s something we should work on in the next battle. Lupine, ready to fight?”
****“Yip yip!” Lupine happily replied. Super Potions were way better at healing Pokémon that people.
****“Celsinge,” Meredith called. The lion looked up from where she was licking her paw and sauntered over to Meredith.
****“Mrow,” she said, planting her paws in the ground and facing Lupine.
****“Let’s go,” said Meredith, and Celsinge lunged at Lupine.

[Cyndadile]

I'm losing it.

Part 18: Power Up
****“Ready?” asked Jane. I nodded. “Go.” We both released our first pokéball at the same time.
****Meredith and I had already researched which Pokémon Jane, Gym Leader of Kalypso, used in battle. She had four different Pokémon: a cow-like Pokémon called Miltank, a bull called Tauros, an oddly-shaped mammal called Firrel, and a mongoose-like Pokémon called Zangoose. Her first Pokémon was Firrel, who immediately found himself face-to-face with a blast of flames.
****“Say hello to my little friend!” I said. Celsinge let out a sigh before jumping over Firrel, aiming to grab Firrel’s tail between her teeth. She caught the edge of the tail, but the tile floor was too slippery, and Celsinge had too much momentum. She slid into the wall.
****Firrel recovered quickly and spun around to face Celsinge. “Swift!” Jane ordered. Bright rays shot out of Firrel’s mouth. Celsinge leapt up fast enough and managed to avoid them.
****“Fire tail!” I yelled. “Fire Tail” isn’t a move that you can find in any of those over-priced Training Manuals. Instead, it was a move that Celsinge and I had worked on ourselves. Celsinge spun in circles in mid-air, the flame on the tip of her tail bursting into a brighter incandescence. When she reached Firrel, her tail smacked across the other Pokémon’s stomach, leaving several red stripes. Firrel yelped in pain.
****“Impressive,” murmured Jane. She returned Firrel, eliminating the Pokémon from the rest of the battle.
****“Good job!” Meredith yelled form the spectator area. I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or to Celsinge.
****Since Jane had returned a Pokémon, I had the opportunity to switch Celsinge for someone else without penalty, and I took advantage of the opportunity.
****“Lupine!” I said as Jane released her second Pokémon, Tauros. Lupine leapt into battle, a pair of vines already spurting out of the leafy collar around his neck.
****Tauros charged at Lupine, but the bull took too long to get up to speed. Lupine secured a vine around both of Tauros’s horns and used them to fling himself off to the side.
****Tauros tried to shake the vines off of his horns, but the lack of opposable thumbs made it difficult to disentangle himself. Meanwhile, Lupine jerked on the vines to launch himself onto Tauros’s back. Tauros grunted in outrage.
****Lupine released his hold on Tauros’s horns in favor of a grip around the larger Pokémon’s stomach. He put his face in the bull’s thick mane of dark hair and unleashed a round of razor-sharp leaves. Tauros bucked up onto his rear legs.
****“Keep going!” shouted Jane. Tauros bucked up again, but didn’t stop on his hind legs. He continued falling back.
****“Get back!” I told Lupine. I returned him to his pokéball before the 200-pound bull squashed him.
****As Tauros collapsed onto his back, I released Celsinge again. “Let it snow!” I said.
****Celsinge raised an eyebrow, but shot a series of white-hot embers up into the air. Tauros, wildly thrashing in an attempt to get back onto his feet, ended up coating himself in the burning ashes.
****“Return,” said Jane, returning Tauros to his pokéball. She released Miltank next. “Rollout,” she ordered. The cow rolled into a ball and came flying towards Celsinge. Celsinge leapt out of the way just in time. Miltank stopped before she hit the wall and turned around, rolling back at Celsinge.
****This time, Celsinge darted towards the wall. When Miltank came around again, Celsinge jumped up and over the cow, and the cow’s momentum sent her crashing into the wall.
****“Use ember!” I said. Celsinge once again let out a stream of white-hot embers, this time covering most of the floor. When Miltank tried to use rollout again, she wound up with several small burns on her back.
****“Stomp!” said Jane. Miltank leapt into the air and came crashing down on Celsinge.
****“Mrow!” Celsinge exclaimed.
****“Celsinge, return!” I let out my last Pokémon, Ecco. Ok, technically Ecco wasn’t my last, but my only other Pokémon, Koffing, wasn’t willing to battle. I’d promised that he wouldn’t have to battle for a week, and although it has been almost a week and a half, Koffing still gives me a dirty look whenever I imply that he should fight. So I’d have to rely on Ecco.
****“Supersonic!” At my command, Ecco screeched an inaudible pulse that made the air shimmer slightly. The effect on Miltank was immediately clear; the Pokémon’s eyes crossed, she slouched a little, and she began stumbling around.
****Stumbling right onto Celsinge’s hot embers.
****“OOOOOOOO!” Miltank grunted. “OOOOOOOOO!” Each step took her into another patch of embers.
****“Return,” said Jane. “Zangoose, get those coals off the floor!” Zangoose, emerging from his pokéball, immediately began slashing at the ground. His sharp claws scooped up the embers and tossed them off to the side, and not a single piece touched his fur.
****“Ecco, clear the field!” I said before Zangoose could get too far. The mongoose’s claws were beginning to turn red from handling the hot ashes, and it would have been terrible for Ecco to face an opponent with flaming talons.
****Ecco happily obliged, spitting water over the floor. All of the embers quickly died down, leaving the floor bare, save for a few small puddles.
****“Now, remember the plan!” I said. Ecco turned towards me and waved a fin, but promptly slipped and fell over.
****“Eeee-oooo!” he cried, flopping around.
****“Get up!” I said.
****“Lack of coordination,” said Jane. “I’d expected better based on your performance with Celsinge.”
****“Shut up,” I suggested.
****“Zangoose, slash!” The snake-hating Pokémon leapt on top of Ecco and raised a claw.
****WHOOSH. Ecco shot a thick stream of water into its mouth, making Zangoose cover its eyes.
****“Tail attack!” I said. Ecco wetted himself with water sport, then smacked his tail at Zangoose’s leg. The force of the blow shot Ecco back across the slippery floor, out from under Zangoose. “Water pulse!”
****Ecco spat out several rings of water, each hitting Zangoose in the back. Zangoose, soaking wet and furious, turned around and approached Ecco again, this time with much more caution.
****Ecco used his tail like a spring to fling himself at Zangoose and bit the Pokémon’s arm. With his tail, he smacked Zangoose in the stomach, then dropped to the floor, preparing to use water sport for another getaway.
****But Zangoose was a fast learner. Using both hands, he gripped Ecco below the fins so that he couldn’t slide down.
****“Tail attack!” I said. Ecco’s tail slashed from side to side, but it lacked enough strength to make Zangoose let go.
****“Bite!” said Jane.
****“Ecco,” I began, holding up his pokéball to return him.
****“Oooo-eeee!” Ecco exclaimed, and his tail began to sparkle. Ecco slashed one last time, and Zangoose recoiled as Ecco’s tail left a nasty cut on the mongoose’s skin.
****“What was that?” I asked Ecco. Ecco shrugged his fins.
****“Looks like ‘iron tail,’” Meredith supplied form the spectator area.
****“Alright then. Ecco, can you do it again?”
****Ecco didn’t have a chance to respond, because just then Zangoose jumped forward again, capturing Ecco between his claws. Ecco’s eyes narrowed, and the little dolphin held out his tail straight. His tail glowed again and turned a metallic shade of blue, and Ecco swung it at Zangoose’s legs. Zangoose leapt back, but Ecco pursued his opponent, slashing at Zangoose’s stomach.
****“Alright, alright,” Jane said. She returned Zangoose and walked up to shake my hand. “This is what, your second badge?” she asked, handing me a Staccato Badge. “With it, you’re allowed to use the HM Flash. You’ll also get this TM,” she handed me a CD. “It’s Statronome. Anyways, good job. You’re a pretty strong trainer.” She began to release my hand, but then noticed my first badge. “Fernando’s badge?” She took a closer look at him. “Fernando told me about you!”
****“He can talk?” I asked. Jane laughed.
****“He said you took that egg from the Rockets.”
****“What egg?”
****“You’re an awful liar, you know that?” Jane asked.
****“No, I didn’t,” I answered truthfully.
****“Anyways, I don’t care about the egg,” she said. “But there is something that has been bugging me lately. Think you could lend me a hand?”
Losing it.

[ImmunityBow]

Did you really have to go through the whole list of "a cow-like Pokemon called Miltank," "a _____ Pokemon called _____" etc? It seems unnecessarily explanatory. If you were trying to reach a non Pokemon-aware audience, I think you could have made a bigger scene of the Pokemon introductions, having the showdown between your Pokemon involve some sizing up and showing off allowing for a more natural place to put the description.

[Cyndadile]

I suppose that part was somewhat unnecessary; only pokemon people would read a pokemon story. But could you elaborate a bit on what you mean by this:

I think you could have made a bigger scene of the Pokemon introductions, having the showdown between your Pokemon involve some sizing up and showing off allowing for a more natural place to put the description.
I know that I at least want to put in a brief description of the Topaz pokemon, since many people won't be able to recognize them by name. I'm afraid I didn't do a great job describing Firrel, since I have no idea what he's supposed to be.

[NyteFyre]

My best guess is that Firrel is some kind of squirrel. That is all I have to say.

[ImmunityBow]

What I meant was to work your descriptions into the action. Bring it up in passing while things are happening and it won't seem so forced. <<"Don't think you'll last long," said Jane. The squirrel-like Firrel leaped forward, baring its teeth in concurrence.>> As an example I thought up in 20 seconds.

[Cyndadile]

Part 19: Lost Cause
****“The Rivalry Orb?” Meredith asked. “Didn’t you kinda break that?”
****“Jane says it can be fixed,” I said. “It’s supposed to repair itself.”
****“If so, is it safe to give it to her? What if she’s on Team Rocket?”
****“No Rocket has been a Gym Leader since that snafu a few years back in Kanto. They have a good screening process.”
****“That’s true,” admitted Meredith. “And she didn’t really give off a sinister vibe. But what do you get out of it?”
****“Jane says I can have it after she uses it. And all I’ve got to do is go back to that alley and find the pieces. How hard could that be?”
****Apparently, it actually could be very hard. I told Meredith what it would look like and we split up, running down the various alleys to the south of Kalypso City. I thought it wouldn’t take long, but I couldn’t remember which alley I had run down with the Rivalry Orb. They all looked exactly the same; dark, disgusting, with an old dumpster near the end. So, Meredith and I ran around, looking for the right alley, avoiding the creepy-looking people lurking in the shadows.
****I was talking with Meredith on my Pokégear when I saw it; a dumpster with a huge dent in it. Almost as if something had exploded nearby.
****“I think I’ve found it,” I said to Meredith. “Yeah, I found it! The pieces are still here! Meet me back at Jane’s Gym, ok?” I hung up.
****I took a plastic bag out of my backpack and began sweeping the shards into it. All of the pieces were pretty big, so it didn’t take long to track them all down. Once all of the pieces were gathered in the bag, I zipped it closed.
****“Bzzzzzzzzz…” A faint humming filled the alley and the bag began to glow. The shards of glass began to move.
****“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” asked a feminine voice. I turned to face the source as the shards of the orb started fusing together. “Now, can you give it to me, please?”
****“Who are you? Why do you want the Orb?”
****“It’s a powerful object. Anyone who knows how to use it would want it. It is important that I am the one to receive it,” she said, ignoring my first question.
****“Well, I’m sorry, but you can’t have it. I’m not the kind of person to go around giving powerful things to strangers.”
****“We’ll have to see about that,” said the figure. She threw a pokéball and a green, komodo-dragon-like creature emerged. I quickly released Celsinge to counter it, and fumbled around for my Pokédex.
****“Drakodo,” Dexter intoned. “Its acidic saliva can eat through steel with little effort. A fierce predator, it stands at the top of its food chain, daring any soul brave enough to challenge its superiority.”
****Celsinge dodged a glob of Drakodo’s funky spit, and the green liquid started fizzling on the ground. “Flamethrower!” I ordered, and Celsinge obediently blasted Drakodo with fire.
****The lizard didn’t even try to dodge it. Instead, it stepped through the fire, approaching Celsinge, and grabbed her.
****“Scratch!” Celsinge’s claws left four parallel gashes across Drakodo’s face. Howling in pain, the monster threw Celsinge at a wall.
****The little lion crawled back to her feet and snarled. She leapt onto Drakodo’s head, scratching at its eyes with her back feet and biting the back of its neck.
****“Graaaaghur!” cried Drakodo. Once again he reached for Celsinge, but I was faster.
****“Celsinge, return!” I let Lupine out next. “Razor leaf!”
****The grass-type move wasn’t very effective, but Drakodo was already injured. My opponent returned the poisonous lizard, only to release an odd, purple and blue creature.
****“Kondria,” Dexter explained. “When hiding from prey, only the shoots on its head can be seen. Unfortunate Pokémon will nibble on these shoots, which promptly inflict the victim with a debilitating poison.”
****“Keep away from its head!” I advised Lupine. “Pick it up by the legs!” Lupine’s vines wrapped around Kondria’s legs and lifted it several yards into the air.
****“Ahh arr!” hissed the plantlike being.
****“Arf!” Lupine responded, and he slammed his foe into one of the alley’s walls.
****“Arr!” Kondria screeched as Lupine slammed him into the other side of the alley.
****Kondria’s pores began to excrete a purple dust as he slammed into various walls. I covered my mouth with the front of my shirt.
****“Enough!” shouted my opponent. She withdrew Kondria and released a third Pokémon.
****“Seviper,” babbled Dexter. “Its deadly venom has a unique chemical make-up. A pharmacy in Cianwood City has developed a compound out of the poison that cures a few rare conditions.”
****“Seriously? Three poison types?” I said. “You could use a bit of creativity.”
****My opponent smiled. “I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with poison types,” she murmured.
****Seviper sprang forward and wrapped around Lupine. Lupine held off the coils with his vines, leaving him just enough room to slide out of Seviper’s grasp. Seviper didn’t pursue him; instead, the snake sat and watched.
****Lupine tried to wrap his vines around Seviper’s head, but the snake twisted too quickly.
****“Ack,” coughed Lupine.
****“Are you alright?” I asked.
****“Probably not,” my opponent supplied. “Kondria’s poison powder should be setting in right about now.” Lupine threw up.
****“Lupine, return!” I said. I then released Ecco. “Fin-” I coughed. I had been careful to cover my mouth when Kondria produced the powder, but I might have injested some of it. I needed to get to a hospital soon. “Finish him off,” I managed to sputter before breaking into a coughing fit.
****I reached into my backpack for a bottle of water as Ecco sprang at Seviper, carefully avoiding the purple piles of poisonous powder. “Iron tail!” I coughed out. The water had only made my throat drier.
****Ecco’s tail shined in a metallic blue, and he swiped it at Seviper. CLINK. Ecco’s tail was matched by Seviper’s, glittering in a metallic red blade.
****For a few seconds they pushed against each other, but I knew that Seviper would overpower Ecco in enough time.
****“Water gun!” My shout was barely audible, and my throat started to burn. But somehow, Ecco heard me. He sprayed Seviper in the face with a blast of water.
****Hissing, Seviper backed up. The large snake bared its massive fangs and swung its tail back and forth.
****Ecco spat a stream of water into the snake’s mouth.
****Startled, Seviper recoiled, giving Ecco time to hit the snake with iron tail again. Seviper wasn’t fast enough to block it.
****“Stop,” my opponent demanded, returning her Pokémon. “You win.” She reached into her bag and withdrew a pink berry. “Eat this.”
****I eyed it suspiciously. “What is it, poison?” I tried to ask.
****“Poison? No. This is an antidote. It’s a pecha berry.” I took the soft berry and cautiously bit into it. My throat immediately felt better, and the berry was very sweet.
****“Thank you,” I said. “Why are you…”
****“Why am I suddenly being so nice? Because I’m not a terrible person. I never wanted to hurt you. And you won fairly. And that reminds me,” she added, pulling a small package out of her bag. “You’ve earned these.” She unwrapped the package and gave me a disk. “This is the TM Venom Strike. And, of course, here is my badge, the Elixir Badge. It looks like this is your third? So you can use the HM Surf now.”
****“Hold on. You’re a Gym Leader?” I asked.
****“Yes. My name is…”
****“Bella!” Jane supplied. “What are you doing here?” She and Meredith approached us from the end of the alley.
****“You know why I’m here, J. I heard the Rivalry Orb was around here.”
****“Well, you’re too late. Thanks for helping, Tony.”
****“This guy was working for you?”
****“That’s the problem, Bell. If you thought ahead and got someone else to help you, you might be the one who gets the orb.”
****I slid over next to Meredith as the two Gym Leaders continued bickering. “These people are crazy,” I whispered, dropping the Orb on the ground near them.
****“I’ll say,” she answered.
****“Let’s get out of here.”
****“But don’t you want the Orb? Jane was going to let you have it.”
****“Nah. I think the man who had it before me was right.”
****“How’s that?”
****“The thing’s more trouble than it’s worth. Jane and Bella will just have to work this out themselves. Let’s just go.”
****“Alright,” Meredith answered. While the two Gym Leaders fought, the two of us crept past them.
****“Where to next?” I asked.
****“Well, I hear Mistvale is nice this time of year…”
I have nothing interesting to say. Except that I have a new ending message that Imma put at the end of every TA post.

Thanks for reading! Please post any questions, comments, or suggestions! Let me know what you liked or didn't like!

[Cyndadile]

Happy Almost-Halloween!

Part 20: Ghost Busters
****“This better be worth it,” Meredith grumbled.
****“You need to live a little. It’s Halloween!” I said.
****“I look dumb,” she said, plucking at her Halloween costume.
****“The costume has nothing to do with that.”
****Meredith punched me in the arm a little harder than necessary. “Promise we can leave when this is over?”
****“Alright, I promise,” I said.
****Meredith wasn’t too happy to be staying in Roothaven for so long. She thought we should keep moving and make it to Mistvale faster. But it took us almost a week to get through Abaddon Swamp because of the rain, so I convinced her to rest in Roothaven for a while.
****Besides, with her schedule, we would be in the middle of nowhere for Halloween. I was not thrilled about that idea; a guy’s gotta be able to dress up as a monster and go to a party every once in a while. And I hear that Roothaven has some of the best Halloween celebrations.
****I was dressed as a zombie, and Meredith was the Grim Reaper. With the sour look on her face, she was pulling it off quite well.
****When we got to the center of the city, it was already full of people dressed as all kinds of monsters, mythical creatures, and video game characters. There were dozens of tents set up with party games and Halloween activities
****I pointed out a stand a ways to our left. “Let’s go carve a pumpkin,” I said.
****“Sure,” Meredith answered without enthusiasm. I dragged her towards the booth, but she stopped me about halfway there.
****“Hold on. Look at this fraud,” she said, indicating a tent labeled “Fortune Teller”. Inside, a woman wearing absurd purple clothing was waving her hands over a crystal ball.
****“How do you know she’s a fraud? I mean, you’re a fortune teller too, right?”
****“Yeah, but look at the way she uses her crystal ball. She clearly doesn’t know what she’s doing. It’s all for dramatic effect.”
****“Alright, but who cares? People are into that kind of thing. What are you going to do, call her out on it?”
****“Sure! Why not?” Meredith marched into the tent and began to yell at the fortune teller. I rolled my eyes. There had to be at least a dozen fortune telling tents here; Meredith would be at it all night. I waved goodbye to her and headed off to the pumpkin-carving booth.
****“Ahoy there! You want to carve a pumpkin?” asked the man at the booth. I nodded. The man appeared to have several teeth missing, but I avoided staring at his mouth so I wasn’t sure if it was just part of a costume. He was dressed as a pirate. “Alrighty, I’ll grab one for ya… What’s this? What are you doing there?” He reached into the pile of pumpkins and pulled out a small pumpkin-like Pokémon; a Jackalant. Fernando, gym leader of Roothaven, had one before it evolved.
****The Jackalant squealed, and several more pumpkins stirred. They were a mixture of Jackalant and Phantern, the evolved version of Jackalant.
****“ROOOooooOOOO!” one of the Phantern moaned before letting out a stream of fire. The other Pokémon followed suit, setting several of the nearby tents on fire.
****“Put out the flames!” I said, releasing Ecco. The little dolphin sprayed a shower of water over everything.
****By then several people were screaming. “What happened?” said a soft voice behind me. I turned to find Fernando, dressed as a man with underwear made of leaves. That is to say, he was wearing his usual clothing. Despite being a large man, the gym leader seemed to appear out of nowhere.
****“These Pokémon wanted to see some fireworks,” I said. I released Celsinge. “Fight fire with fire,” I told her. Celsinge sighed before leaping into battle.
****“This wrong,” said Fernando. “Peaceful Pokémon. Don’t fight for no reason.”
****“They were waiting in the pile of pumpkins until this guy picked one up.” I jabbed a thumb at the booth’s owner. “Is that enough of a reason for them? Getting picked up?”
****Fernando frowned. “No. Something controlling them. Must find it.”
****“Gotcha. Something’s making the pumpkins wacky. Any idea what it is?”
****He shrugged. “Ghost?”
****“How likely is it that a ghost happens to be messing around on Halloween?”
****“Halloween have monsters for reason,” Fernando answered.
****“Ok. I’ll play ‘Ghost Busters.’ Can you take care of theses Jackalant?” Fernando nodded. “Celsinge, help him out.” Celsinge meowed.
****The entire town was shrouded in light from lampposts, so I figured the ghost would be trying to stay a safe distance away. But it was obviously controlling the Poképumpkins somehow, and I didn’t think it could be too far away. So I searched the nearby forest.
****I briefed Ecco, Lupine, and Koffing on the situation. “We’ve got to find a ghost. I think it’s nearby. Any questions?”
****I don’t give very good mission briefings.
****Lupine’s mouth dropped open and he panted happily before bouncing deeper into the woods. Koffing dropped to the ground and fell asleep, while Ecco slithered off.
****CRACK. I heard a branch snap somewhere to my left.
****“Someone there?” I shouted. I stepped towards the source of the sound.
****Nothing was there except for a tattered old raincoat lying on the ground. I nudged it with my foot.
****“That’s kind of disgusting,” I muttered. I turned around and patted my right pocket, the one that held my Pokédex. “Dexter, if you see anything, let me know.” The blue light in the top corner blinked in response. I took one last look at the moldy raincoat before walking away and smacking into a branch.
****“Ouch!” A tattered, grimy piece of tarp covered my mouth.
****Dexter beeped. “Misticade,” it spouted. “They make their home in old, abandoned lighthouses. At night, one can see them floating out to sea, guiding the ghosts of shipwrecks and lost sailors back to shore.”
****“ARF ARF ARF!” Lupine barked from nearby. Something swished through the air and I heard the wolf cub smack into a tree.
****I pushed the tarp-covered hand far enough below my mouth to shout, “razor leaf!” Lupine happily obliged, battering my captor with dozens of unnatural leaves. His aim was good; only one of the leaves scraped me.
****The Misticade recoiled, and I took the chance to break its grip and get a good look at it. It hardly looked like a Pokémon; it was just the gray raincoat I’d seen, filled with an eerie purple mist. I jumped onto its back, trying to hold on to it, but it collapsed.
****I should have seen it coming. It was just a cloud of mist, after all.
****The raincoat slithered away and reformed itself behind me, wrapping its suddenly solid arms around me.
****“Razor leaf!” I demanded of Lupine again. Before the little pup could begin the attack, Misticade spun around, putting me between the grass Pokémon and itself. Lupine hesitated.
****“Just go!” I said, struggling with the raincoat. Lupine sent a ring of razor leaves around me. Not a single one would have hit if Misticade had been slower to counterattack.
****Misticade sent a pulse of water at Lupine, drenching the puppy and making its projectiles veer of course. Several of them hit me, tearing through my already-ragged zombie-clothing.
****Also, the water smeared the zombie makeup I was wearing. My costume was completely ruined.
****I tucked my head in and tried to roll forward. Misticade resisted, but it couldn’t hold up my full weight, so it let me go. I stumbled to Lupine’s side.
****“Lupine…” I paused. Misticade was hovering over one of the puddles it created. It didn’t seem to be paying us any attention. “Dexter… didn’t you say that Misticade lived near the sea?” I asked my Pokédex.
****“Affirmative,” it answered.
****“So why is it all the way out here, by Roothaven?” Misticade glared at me, as if I had interrupted its train of thought, and sent a ball of dark energies at me. I ducked out of the way.
****“ROOOO!” something howled in the distance. Shoot, another Phantern! I was having trouble holding off the Misticade. If a Phantern joined in, I’d need more than charm, good looks, and Lupine to hold them off.
****“Ecco, get over here!” I shouted. “Koffing, do something!” Koffing didn’t respond, but I heard the familiar “eee-ooo-eee” of Ecco squealing in the distance.
****Phantern crashed through the trees behind Misticade. The gray raincoat’s eyes glowed a brighter purple, and it waved at me.
****“ROOOO!” Phantern answered. It opened its mouth wide, and…
****…It swallowed Misticade whole.
****“Good,” said Fernando, marching from behind Phantern. He looked at the raincoat in his Phantern’s mouth, then at me. “What happened?” he grunted.
****“I think it must have got lost. Or a trainer released it. Or it was just adventurous. Or something. It’s supposed to live near the sea.”
****“Hm,” Fernando said. He lightly tossed a pokéball at the tattered raincoat. Misticade didn’t resist capture. “I send to friend. She bring back to sea.”
****“Alright,” I sighed. I looked down at my ruined costume. “You know what? Maybe Meredith was right. Halloween is overrated. I get beat up enough on a normal day.”
****Fernando put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me back towards town. “Party not over. Get food. Have fun.”
****When we got back, Fernando left to bring the Misticade to a Pokémon Center. I staggered over to a refreshment stand and grabbed a cup of punch as Meredith came out of a fortune teller’s tent. She smiled at me.
****“You know what? You were right! This was fun!” Then she noticed my soaked, torn-up costume. “What happened to you?”
Confession: Didn't finish this episode until just now.
Also, I'm getting tired of shorter stories. I feel like their quality is declining. I wish I had time to write something longer.

[Cyndadile]

Part 21: Haven't the Foggiest
****“Welcome to Mt. Mist!” Meredith exclaimed as the mountain became visible over the treetops. I felt full of energy despite the long journey from Roothaven; something about the air was incredibly refreshing. The mountain was beautiful, shrouded in rings of fog, with steam rising from the ground around it.
****Meredith was already dragging me along. “Can’t we stop and enjoy the view for a while?” I asked.
****“Walk and enjoy at the same time,” she responded. She was intent on sticking to our schedule and moving as fast as possible. With one exception; if she wanted to spend hours “getting ready” in the morning, it was an acceptable use of time.
****“Hold on,” I said. I dug a comb out of my bag. “My hair is a mess,” I explained.
****“It’s always a mess!”
****“A guy needs some time to make himself presentable,” I insisted.
****Meredith shouted something that I found rather rude, then stormed off to sit on a rock. “Fine, but this time is coming out of your next bathroom break,” she shouted.
****I stuck the comb in my hair and sat down, taking in the view. The sun made the mist seem to glitter. I don’t normally enjoy just staring at something; art has never been one of my interests. But the view of Mt. Mist was something that even I could appreciate.
****Eventually I slung my bag over one shoulder (my back was still too raw to wear the backpack normally) and approached Meredith. “Alright, I’m ready.”
****She glared at me judgmentally, but nodded and stood up. “Let’s get going, then.”
****We walked for a couple of hours before the land began to slope uphill. It was getting difficult to see, with all the mist surrounding the mountain, but Meredith had a map and new where we were going. At least, she pretended to.
****“Hold on,” said Meredith.
****This time it was my turn to complain. “We just stopped five minutes ago!” The thick fog was making it a bit uncomfortable to breathe and making me get tired faster, and I wanted to get through it as fast as possible.
****“Are those Rockets?”
****I immediately became more alert. I squinted through the fog and could just make out four or five dark figures on the road ahead of us. I recognized one of them instantly. “Yeah,” I said. “Let’s go say hello.” Meredith nodded; she might not be on the Orion’s side, but she disliked the Rockets as much as I did. Actually, probably more; Emily’s membership in the team has made me a bit more sympathetic to the Rockets.
****“Hey, Henry!” I said when we were close to the Rockets.
****“Why do you always show up on my missions?” Henry spat.
****“This is Henry?” asked Meredith. “The Rocket with the big nose?”
****“You haven’t met him yet? We’re, like, best friends!” I said. “It seems like I see him every day!”
****“All you told her about me was the size of my nose?” Henry protested. “It’s not even that big!”
****“Dude, it’s pretty huge,” said one of the Rockets. He was the only one not wearing Rocket attire. Instead, he was wore a black polo shirt and a blue checkered sweater vest.
****“I like you,” I told Sweater-Vest-Guy. “Ever consider joining the Orions?”
****“Nah. Just joined the Rockets. Gotta build up my resume.”
****“Hold on. Henry, you got put in charge of a bunch of new guys? Did they not think you could handle a big mission?” I teased.
****“This is a very important mission!” Henry said.
****“Mm-hm. I think your bosses just wanted you out of their hair.”
****“No! They sent us here to get a bunch of rare Pokémon! We’ve got seven Inflrae already! Mt. Mist is a treasure trove as far as the Rockets are concerned! They wouldn’t trust that to just anybody!”
****I can’t help but wonder why the Rockets hired Henry. I mean, he just spilled his plan like a comic book supervillain. All we had to do was release these seven Inflare, whatever they were. I’ve heard of them before, but I’ve never seen one; they had level five protection under the Caldera Protected Species Act. That meant that trainers were not allowed to catch them unless they had at least two badges.
****“Dude, you just told him why we were here. He knows what we want, and how many we already have,” Sweater-Vest told Henry.
****Henry swore. “You devious little jerk,” he said to me.
****“Devious?” asked Sweater-Vest. “Hardly. It didn’t take any effort on his part at all.”
****“Shuddup! Smokescreen!” Several of the Rockets released Koffing, and each began spewing a disgusting-tasting smoke into the already foggy air.
****“Get them!” I shouted.
****“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Meredith said from somewhere nearby.
****I released all of my Pokémon. Ecco went with me, while Celsinge and Lupine darted off in different directions. Koffing wheezed and contributed to the cloud of smoke.
****I’d imagine that Mt. Mist would be a difficult place to run even without the fog. The mountain was covered in rubble and large rocks that made it almost impossible not to trip every four steps. On the bright side, I could clearly hear one of the Rockets moving ahead of me. I tried to follow the sound of his footsteps.
****I chased him for about five minutes, and was very thankful that Meredith had convinced me to practice jogging regularly. The Rocket was out of breath when I caught up, but I was feeling fine.
****“Hiya, Sweater-Vest-Guy!” I greeted him. “Done running yet?”
****“Ok, ok,” he panted, raising his hands and collapsing onto a rock. “I give up.” Then he raised an eyebrow. “‘Sweater-Vest-Guy?’ Really?”
****“Well, you are wearing a sweater vest.”
****“It’s a logical fashion choice,” he sniffed.
****“Mhm. Now give me the Inflare,” I demanded.
****“Boss has most of them. He only let me have this one.” Sweater-Vest tossed a pokéball on the ground between us.
****“Thanks, dude,” I said, stooping to pick it up.
****“EEEeee!” Ecco warned.
****Something screeched, and I felt Ecco being lifted off my shoulder.
****“Iron tail!” I said. I heard Ecco thrash, but I don’t know what happened next. A loud, metallic click distracted me from the fight.
****“Leave it,” a girl said from behind me. I never heard her approach, but she rested something metal against the back of my head. I raised my hands in submission. What is it about Team Rocket and guns? The Orions never used them.
****“Pick up your pokéball, Freddie,” the girl demanded. Freddie complied. The girl returned her attention to me. “Don’t move, now,” she advised, carefully removing my belt of pokéballs. “And don’t say anything.”

Thanks for reading! Please post any questions, comments, or suggestions! Let me know what you hated or didn't hate!

As an added bonus...
I'd like to incorporate a little audience participation. Meredith's going to be getting a new Pokemon in I'm-not-quite-sure-how-many episodes. It doesn't matter to the plot yet WHICH Pokemon she gets, so I'm taking suggestions: What should Meredith's new Pokemon be? It needs to be first stage or baby.
These ones are off-limits: Any starter, Lupine, Equill, Ampure, SLowpoke, Embear, Grimer, Koffing, and Fincherp. Any other Pokemon I'd be willing to take into consideration.

[NyteFyre]

How about a Kuranpu? you didn't say legends were off limits.

[Cyndadile]

You're right, but
If I used a legendary, it would be two legendary-related episodes in a row, which might be too much.
However, if you can make an argument about how she could have
stolen a Kuranpu from another trainer,
then I'd be willing to look into the possibility.

[NyteFyre]

Works for me, and i didn't notice that there was another legend already posted, my bad.

[Cranky Guy]

How about Kondria or Spidream?

[Cyndadile]

Kinda liking that Kondria idea. I could make that work.

Part 22: Bad Gas
****Ignoring her demand to be quiet, I searched my brain for something non-threatening and pacifying to say. All I came up with was, “Aren’t you a bit young to be playing with guns?” Apparently, stupidity was becoming a reflex for me.
****“I said, be quiet!” she repeated, kicking me to the ground. “Tie him up,” she ordered to Sweater-Vest. I head him stand up and approach.
****“So, just wondering,” I said while Sweater-Vest searched his bag. “What’s the plan here, exactly? You gonna shoot me, or leave me tied up here?”
****“That depends on whether or not you can keep your mouth shut.”
****“Mm-hm. Right. So, if I keep my mouth shut, which do I get? Shot or tied up?”
****“You get-”
****The gun roared. The sound of the gunshot echoed around the mountain, and I froze. After a split second, when I realized I hadn’t been shot, I rolled over, my legs kicking to get the Rocket’s feet out from under her.
****“You can stop that now,” said Sweater-Vest. I opened my eyes.
****Sweater-Vest was kneeling on top of the female Rocket, and her gun was lying just out of reach. He didn’t look very strong, but Sweater-Vest didn’t have any trouble holding the girl down.
****“Empty the gun,” he told me. I removed the clip of bullets and tossed them down the hill. “Alright,” Sweater-Vest continued, releasing the Rocket girl. “Now we can settle this like civilized people.” He turned away and called, “Gashawk!”
****The flying Pokémon flew out of the mist, torn up form battle. I heard Ecco hopping along behind him.
****I’m proud to say that Ecco was in much better shape than his opponents. He barely had a scratch.
****“Now, I’ve agreed to release my Inflare,” Sweater-Vest said. He picked up a pokéball and opened it. In a flash of green light, a small humanoid Pokémon appeared. It was made of flaming rocks, and scurried away as soon as it was released. “Do you two want to battle for her Inflare?”
****The female Rocket said in French what I assumed was something extremely offensive.
****“Well then,” Sweater-Vest snatched a pokéball from her belt and released it. “I think we’re done here. Sorry for the trouble,” he told me.
****“Thank you,” I said. “For, you know, not letting her shoot me.”
****“We’re human. We’ve got to look out for each other,” he said in a tone that implied he knew something that I didn’t. Then he and the other Rocket left.
****I retraced my steps to where we met the Rockets, and found Meredith, as well as my other Pokémon, there.
****“Did you find any?” I asked.
****“I released two. You?”
****“I got another two. That Sweater-Vest guy helped.”
****“That leaves three. And I bet Henry’s the one who’s got them.” She pointed up the hill. “The two Rockets I got them from ran up there. I think that’s where he’ll be.”
****“Let’s go.”
****Sure enough, we found him. He and the four younger Rockets were gathered on the edge of the cliff. They seemed to be waiting for us.
****“Boss, they’re here!” one of the Rockets said. Henry tuned to face us.
****“You can’t beat us all at once!” Henry said. “If you leave now, we won’t have to take your Pokémon!”
****Lupine and Celsinge snarled. “You won’t be able to take them,” I said.
****Henry and the Rocket’s let out their Pokémon.
****In addition to Henry’s Mermeidon, Gyrados, and Grimer, there was the girl’s Gashawk, three Koffing, two Zubat, a Mogel, and a Fincherp.
****“We can take you,” Meredith said with confidence. But she shot a nervous glance over her shoulder at me.
****“Koffing! Poison gas!” I ordered. Koffing wheezed at me, but otherwise did nothing.
****“Come on, Koffing!” Meredith said as she released he Slowpoke. “We’re outnumbered here! We need your help!”
****“Huh huh,” Koffing complained. But he did it; he participated in a battle for the first time in weeks.
****Gyrados began thrashing around when it inhaled the toxic fumes. It looked like it wanted to wave the gas away with its tail, but it was much more clumsy on land than in the water.
****“Celsinge, fire wave!” Celsinge sent a ten-foot-tall wave of flames into the opponents. The only a few of the flying Pokémon doged the attack. “Keep going!” I said as I picked up Ecco by the tail. Celsinge continued to send increasingly high walls of fire into our opponents.
****“What are you doing?” Meredith asked as I started spinning around, holding Ecco by the tail in front of me.
****“Eeee-oooo!” Ecco answered.
****“That about sums it up,” I agreed. Meredith shook her head, then ducked as the Fincherp came flying at her head.
****“Confusion!” she ordered Slowpoke. Slowpoke glanced at Fincherp and tilted its head to the side.
****“Uhhhhhhh…” it mumbled, and the Fincherp collapsed.
****Once I was spinning fast enough, I let go of Ecco. The little dolphin flew through the air and rammed into Gyrados’ head.
****“Graaaaah!” Gyrados protested. Using his tail, Ecco held on to Gyrados’s head.
****“Good work, Ecco!” I said, picking up Lupine. “Let’s go, buddy,” I told the wolf in my hands. “Koffing, follow me!” Between waves of fire, I dashed towards Henry.
****Henry was standing by the edge of the cliff, Sweater-Vest and the gun-toting girl by his side. I glanced over my shoulder to see if Koffing came with, and saw Meredith pushing the purple ball towards me.
****“Koffing, take out the girl with some sludge! We’ll get Henry!” I said. Koffing looked backwards for a moment, then hung his head.
****“Guh,” he grunted, spitting a ball of slime at the girl’s face, blinding her.
****Meanwhile, Lupine was wrapping one vine around Henry’s leg.
****“Gashawk!” Henry cried. I heard the bird caw from somewhere nearby.
****“Stop!” I said, reaching into my pocket. I withdrew the empty gun I’d confiscated from the girl. Of course, Henry didn’t know it was empty, and the girl was preoccupied with Koffing. Only Sweater-Vest could ruin it for me.
****“Toss me the Pokémon,” I ordered. Henry’s eyes were wide, and he removed three pokéballs from his belt and rolled them towards me. “Lupine, pick them up.”
****Lupine’s pair of vines curled around the first two pokéballs and handed them to me. I released them each with my unburdened hand.
****Just as Lupine’s vines wrapped around the third, Gyrados let out an awful shriek. Ecco was still on its face, and was beating up the Pokémon pretty badly. The Gyrados was defenseless, and it let itself fall to the ground.
****It fell right over Henry and Sweater-Vest.
****Henry lunged forwards, but Sweater-Vest wasn’t as quick. He stepped back in shock, but his foot slipped. I was too far away to grab him as he slipped off the cliff.
****“Lupine, help him!” Lupine was already releasing the last Inflare pokéball to catch Sweater-Vest. His vines wrapped around the kid’s ankle.
****“Everyone out!” Henry yelled, returning his Pokémon to their pokéballs. The other Rockets returned their Pokémon and fled.
****I looked up. Henry was holding on to Gashawk and flying away… with the last of the Inflare. I considered throwing something at him, but instead I helped Sweater-Vest back to his feet.
****“Thanks,” he said.
****“Hey. We’re human. We’ve got to look out for each other.” He smiled.
****I looked around at the empty battle field. The only enemy Pokémon remaining were a Zubat and a Mogel. Sweater-Vest quickly returned them.
****“Let’s go,” I said to Meredith.
****“Did you get them all?” she asked.
****“No, Henry got one of them.” I turned to leave. “See you around, Sweater-Vest.”
****“Hey. You can call me Freddie,” Sweater-Vest responded.
****I looked over my shoulder and grinned. “That’s not going to happen, Sweater-Vest.”
****“You know,” Meredith said as we left. “You’re the only one who thinks you’re funny.”
Today's bonus: I found this single line hiding in my list of characters and which Pokemon they have.

Need a character named Dave.
No context. Just that line. Not sure what I was thinking there.
Ah, yet another harrowing tale of Cyndadile's randomness.

Thanks for reading! Please post any questions, answers, comments, or suggestions! Let me know what you liked or didn't like!

[Cyndadile]

Part 23: Kung Fu Spinda
****“Raaaaa!” cried the Spinda as it was captured.
****“Stop!” I yelled as I reached for Ecco’s pokéball.
****“Hold on!” Meredith stopped me from releasing my Echoise. “He somehow caught that Spinda, even though it had a trainer. Ecco won’t be safe!”
****“Right. Then we’ll have to do this without Pokémon.” Snatching up a staff hanging on the dojo’s wall, I chased after the man. Meredith, selecting an unsheathed katana, followed.
****We had stopped in Mistvale City a few days ago, and decided to train in self-defense for a week or two. With all the fights we seemed to be getting into, we thought it would be a good idea to have some training. So far, it was going well.
****Until someone new joined the dojo today. They had one arm in a splint, covered in bandages, but our Master was teaching him good form for kicks.
****Then, halfway through class, he unwrapped his arm to reveal a weird metal contraption, and used it to capture the dojo’s mascot, a spotted panda Pokémon known as Spinda.
****The man, still wearing a white uniform, hopped onto a black ATV and started it up.
****Shouting, Meredith threw the katana.
****I don’t know if she meant to hit him or not. But she came really close. The sword flew right in front of the man’s eyes. If this were a movie or a book or something, it would have sliced off the tufts of his hair. But stuff like that doesn’t happen in real life.
****Stunned, the man paused and looked over at Meredith. His surprise gave me time to catch up and hit him in the head with my staff.
****The man swore and got the ATV moving, but I grabbed his arm and hopped on, stopping him from turning. Meredith caught up and threw herself at the man’s side, pushing all of us off the other side of the ATV.
****I struggled out of the heap of people and withdrew my golden Orion badge from the inside of my uniform.
****“Um,” I said, trying to recall Orion Defender guidelines for making an arrest. Just that week the Orions had sent me a box with supplies, including a rulebook, an ugly uniform that I do not expect to ever wear, and a few set of handcuffs, for both people and Pokémon. I guess that makes me an official Orion Defender. I probably should have read the rulebook a little more closely. “On behalf of the Orion Defenders… I am placing you under arrest?”
****The man spat out a fairly inappropriate suggestion for what I could do to myself, then pushed Meredith off of him.
****“This is your last warning,” I said as I drew Ecco’s pokéball from my pocket with my free hand.
****“Do it,” the man snarled, shaking the machine on his arm free.
****I did it. I brought my staff down hard on his arm and heard the sound of a bone snapping as I released Ecco. The machine on his arm let out a few sparks, and the lights on its side faded to darkness.
****“You broke my arm!” he yelled.
****“Yeah, Captain Obvious. I did. I warned you. Now put your hands up before I make you come with me.”
****“Eee-ooo-eee!” Ecco agreed.
****The man put a pokéball in his broken hand, provoking a puff of smoke from the machine, and weakly tossed it at Ecco. The little dolphin swatted it away.
****“Ooo-e?” Ecco requested.
****“Mhm,” I nodded.
****Ecco doused the man in a blast of water, and I held his good arm down with my staff.
****“Meredith, run back and get my handcuffs from my bag.”
****Meredith took off, back towards the dojo.
****“Why did you take that Spinda?” I asked.
****The man only shook his head.
****“Who are you?” I asked. Meredith, returning with my handcuffs, secured the man’s hands behind his back, and then came to my side.
****“You’re being a bit harsh,” she whispered.
****“This guy can capture someone else’s Pokémon. We can’t just let him run around with this machine thing!”
****“That’s true, I guess. But still…” her voice trailed off.
****“Can you find Spinda?” I asked out loud. Meredith nodded, and started rifling through the man’s stuff.
****I examined the broken machine. “What is this ‘Cipher’?” I asked, pointing at a logo on the back of the hand. The man jerked his arms away from me and spun around to face me.
****“I would rather die than tell you who we are!” he shouted.
****We? So there were a group of them, then. “That seems a bit extreme,” I said.
****“Tony, watch out!” Meredith screamed. I felt something heavy collide with the torn-up raw patch on my back and arched in pain. My eyes flooded with tears.
****With my blurred vision, I saw a black blob strike down Meredith and put one foot on her back. She put up a fight, but an arm attached to the blob reached down and hit her.
****“Ra!”
****I tried to blink the tears out of my eyes. A small, confused-looking tan-and-red bear was standing in front of me, its paws on its hips.
****“Ra!” it exclaimed again as it jumped and landed a punch in the stomach of the man holding down Meredith. The man doubled over, allowing Meredith to roll away.
****Spinda focused on my guy next. The panda twitched one ear, and jumped in a flying kick just below the man’s belt, eliciting a high-pitched stream of profanities.
****I struggled to get up as Spinda rounded on the handcuffed man.
****“Nonononono!” he yelped, jumping on the ATV and awkwardly steering with his knees. The other two followed suit, and Spinda, little paws on its hips, watched them go.
****“Ra,” the panda said.
****“Thanks,” Meredith said.
****“Yeah, good job buddy,” I told Spinda. “But we still need to find out who Cipher is,” I told Meredith.
****“Raooo,” Spinda interjected, holding up a small metal plate. I took it. It had three letters, “CIP” on one side, and an eleven-digit serial number on the other.
****“Thanks.” I said. “Maybe someone will know what to make of this.”
****“It’s a start,” Meredith agreed.
FYI, this story is going to end up showing why Nintendo never combined original Pokemon, XD, and Ranger in one game. THE TEMPTATION WAS IRRESISTIBLE!

Thanks for reading! Please post any questions, answers, comments, or suggestions! Let me know what you liked or didn't like!

[ImmunityBow]

Spinda's such a silly Pokemon, it'd be terrifying to see a truly evil Shadow one. You kind of threw in Pokemon Special in there too right? Considering that the trainers are getting involved in the fights somewhat.

I'm sure once Nintendo realizes that 1k+ Pokemon is probably not very profitable then they'll look towards innovative ways of combining what they already have.

[Cyndadile]

Actually, Pokemon Special is really where my idea for this came from! That is, if we're talking about the same thing. (http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Adventures) Although I haven't gotten too far into Yellow yet; I should resume that.

I never actually thought about Spinda becoming a Shadow Pokemon. Especially with how strong this one is, it'd be pretty scary.

I hope you're right about Nintendo combining (or at least reusing) old ideas. I really want Shadow Pokemon to return. Colosseum was probably the first Pokemon game that I really fell in love with. It may have had something to do with the fact that you really were being the hero in that game; you were stopping people from stealing Pokemon. The Rockets stole Pokemon, too, but they always seemed like more of an afterthought in the original games. It wasn't driven by Team Rocket, it was driven by being better than everyone else. In Colosseum, the game was driven by getting rid of the bad guys!

I'm so much more moved by a game's plot than my friends are.

[Cyndadile]

Part 24: Off the Books
****“What the heck do you think you’re doing?” I demanded, releasing Ecco and pinning my Orion badge to my chest.
****A pair of Orion Defenders turned to face me as I approached. They were both female. One of them was better than six feet tall, the other one a full foot shorter. I found myself wishing that Meredith was here, in case it came to a fight, but she was somewhere farther down Route 53, looking for dry firewood. I’d have to avoid a fight, or act quickly enough to gain an edge on both of them.
****The shorter Orion glanced from me to Ecco (who was giving his best glare), and responded, “this man is a member of Team Rocket. We are placing him under arrest.”
****“Really? Because it looks to me like you just beat up a child.” I looked down at the handcuffed kid. He couldn’t have been older than fourteen. He had a long gash along one arm, another along his leg, a black eye, and was covered in bruises.
****“He was attempting to resist arrest. We had to restrain him.”
****“Jeez. He’s a kid,” I said. Did he even do anything wrong?”
****“He’s a member of Team Rocket,” the shorter Orion repeated.
****“Yes, but did he do anything wrong,” I asked again.
****The taller girl began rifling through the kid’s bag. “In what world is being a Rocket anything but wrong?” she asked without looking up.
****I tore the bag from her hands. “Can you not see the problem here?” I demanded.
****“What the fudge is your problem?” the taller Orion asked. Except she didn’t say “fudge.”
****“My problem is that you just beat up a kid and are taking his stuff! That’s messed up!”
****“It’s our duty to stop the Rockets, whatever it takes,” the shorter one protested.
****“No, it’s not. That’s not what the Orion Defenders were founded on. We’re here to help Pokémon. To make people and Pokémon get along. To show that, working together, people and Pokémon can do great things. But if you target Team Rocket members who haven’t done anything wrong, you’re no better than the worst of the Rocket scum. Not everyone in Team Rocket is wrong, just because they’re on the other side. Some of them chose the Rockets for the right reasons. We, as Orion Defenders, have an obligation to act only against those who oppose our cause. And not all Rockets do.”
****The two girls looked at each other, then started snickering.
****“Who told you that garbage?” asked the taller one.
****“Matthew… Matthew the Ranger,” I said, which was true enough. I had embellished it a bit, and paraphrased the guidebook. But I thought I had captured the gist of the Orions pretty well.
****Clearly, the two girls disagreed. They just laughed harder.
****“Matthew?” the shorter one managed to sputter. “He’s always been such a romantic when it comes to the Orions.”
****My face began to get red. Whether or not it was against the Orions’ mission, I couldn’t let these two do stuff like this. It was just wrong.
****“Lupine, vine whip,” I said as I released the wolf cub. “Ecco, iron tail.”
****Lupine sent out a pair of vines to wrap around each of the Orions, binding their arms to their bodies, while Ecco broke the handcuffs on the young Rocket with a sweep of his tail. The Rocket picked up his bag and fled.
****“What the fudge?” the taller Orion demanded again.
****“I walked up to her and tried to remove the Orion badge from her chest without actually touching her chest. Because that would be inappropriate. Much more inappropriate than, say, having a Pokémon tie up a pair of girls in the middle of the forest.
****I managed to remove both of the badges, ignoring the two girls’ offensive words and struggles, then had Celsinge melt the badges into a brass-colored blob. I handcuffed both of the girls before I let Lupine release them.
****“Get out of here,” I ordered. I pushed the two of them away. “And if I see either of you threatening an innocent person again, you’ll regret it.”
****The coldness in my voice startled even me. And I had meant every word.
****Maybe I was becoming as bad as them.
Short. A quick look at some Orions with a different philosophy.

In a few episodes, I think I'm going to stop these regular updates. It'll give me time to produce (hopefully) higher quality stories, and lower my stress level a little. Although not really all that much. It's not like I spend more than a couple hours writing these.

Gracias por leer! Por favor enviar cualquier pregunta, comentarios o ideas! Quiero saber lo que le gustó o no le gustó!

[Cyndadile]

Part 25: Not Negglected
****I hefted it onto the table of my hotel room in Softwind City and stared at it. It was about a foot and a half or two feet high, and it radiated some kind of tangible energy. The brilliant gold surface was incredibly smooth, and somehow the oils from my fingers didn’t manage to smudge the surface.
****“Just staring at it won’t tell you anything about it, you know,” Meredith pointed out.
****“I know.” I paused for a moment, then looked at her. “It seems warmed now, for some reason.”
****She shrugged and opened the window, letting in some fresh air. “Maybe…”
****THUMP. The stolen golden egg jumped up on the table and swiveled, facing out the open window. Celsinge and Lupine looked up from where she was sleeping on the couch, but Ecco didn’t budge.
****“What…” I looked in the direction it was pointing.
****It was facing the three Elemental Towers of Softwind City.
****“That’s got to mean something,” I said.
****Celsinge snorted.
****Meredith closed the window again, and the egg slowly lay back down. “Yes, but what?”
****“Let’s find out,” I answered.
****We went to the library.
****Softwind City is well known for its library. It has the largest collection of books in Caldera and Kirant, literature and fables from all over the world.
****Despite everything I heard about it, I didn’t expect it to be quite so big. We could end up searching for days for a book about any of the three eggs I saw back in Roothaven, let alone the gold one.
****But the egg had to be important. So we started reading.
****“I hate books,” said Meredith after about an hour.
****“You’re the one who won’t let us ask a librarian,” I pointed out.
****“If we want to keep the…” she glanced around and lowered her voice, “you-know-what secret, we can’t just ask someone what they know about it.”
****“What if we don’t ask about the egg? I mean, it responded to the towers. Maybe we just need to find out about them.”
****Meredith nodded. “It’s worth a shot.”
****The librarian was writing with a blue quill when we found her, but she quickly folded up the paper and stored the quill in her hair when she heard us approaching.
****“How can I help you?” she asked.
****“Do you have any books about the Elemental Towers?” asked Meredith.
****“The Elemental Towers…” the librarian repeated. “I’m sorry, but all of the information about them is stored in the towers themselves. All that I can tell you about them is that they supposedly hold powers of fire, electricity, and ice.” She tilted her head to one side. “May I ask why you want to know?”
****“We, uh…” Meredith hesitated.
****“We’re just curious,” I filled in. “They’re magnificent buildings, and we were wondering who created them, and why? What’s inside them?”
****“I’m afraid I can’t tell you. Only those who prove themselves by earning all of Caldera and Kirant’s Gym Badges may enter the buildings.”
****Meredith and I traded a glance. “Thank you, miss,” Meredith said.
****“Any time.”
****“Well, I guess we won’t be finding anything out,” Meredith said as we left the library.
****“Probably not,” I agreed. “But I want to take the egg out for a while this afternoon. See if it reacts to anything else.”
****“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Is someone recognizes it, you could be in trouble.”
****“I’ll be careful.”
****That evening, I wrapped the egg up in a sheet and put it in my backpack. As the sun began to set, my Pokémon and I took the egg out for a walk.
****I held my backpack in my right hand, with part of the egg visible, and held Ecco’s pokéball in my left hand. The egg pulled a little towards the towers. I walked in a circle around the fence guarding the towers, until I was on the opposite side of than the city. By the time I got there, it was dark out.
****There was no one around. Even if someone was there, they probably couldn’t see me. The information I needed to find out about the egg was just over that small fence. I could probably climb over without much effort.
****Then I could find out what the Rockets were up to. Why they needed the eggs.
****I leaned against the fence, looking for any guards inside. There only seemed to be one, and he was pacing around as if he had to urinate. I doubt he would have noticed if I went through the front gate.
****It was so easy. Break the rules, for once. Jump the fence. The egg seemed to wobble in my backpack, as if encouraging me to go.
****But I didn’t. I can’t just ignore the rules. First this, then what? I’d be starting on same path as those Orions I met a couple days ago, the ones who were beating up some poor kid. But that’s not who I wanted to become. I just had to be patient. Eventually I’d find out.
****I turned around and began to walk back towards town, covering up the egg as I did.
****I didn’t get very far before a flashlight shone in my eyes, ruining my night vision.
****I heard a Pokémon being released, and someone, a woman, spoke with authority. “Who goes there?”
(Arbitrarily) END SEASON 1

Oh, yeah. Here's a PDF of all 25 episodes of Season 1 (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/92347724/Topaz%20Adventures%20Season%201.pdf). 57 pages of storyness. At some point, I've got to go through and make improvements, but until then, this is the zeroth edition - (almost) no changes from what's been posted here.

[ImmunityBow]

Have you counted the words?

[Cyndadile]

32,159 words, starting at the author's note.

I usually think of TA in terms of individual episodes, so I hadn't really thought of the fact that it's the biggest story I've written yet. But tens of thousands of words? And I only work on it for <however long it takes me to do laundry> a week. It's so much bigger than I ever expected it to be.

I've also noticed that, for some reason, my average paragraph length seems to be getting shorter as the number of episodes rise. I'm not quite sure why that is.

[Cyndadile]

Part 26: The Librarian
****I blinked. The bright light was bringing tears to my eyes. “Um. Hello there?” I said.
****The woman turned the flashlight away from my face, and I could just make out her silhouette.
****“What’s your name, kid?” she demanded again.
****Straitening my back a little, I tried to match the authority in her voice and reached for my Orion badge. “My name is Tony. I’m working with the Orion Defenders.” Which, technically, was true. I wasn’t currently acting with the Orions’ orders, but I was still one of them.
****I could begin to make out the woman’s features. Her eyes flickered between my badge and my face. “Ophelia would have informed me if she sent an Orion Defender.”
****“You’re that librarian I met earlier,” I realized. I didn’t mean to say it out loud, but it kind of slipped out.
****She nodded. “I am Therma, this town’s first librarian… and its Gym Leader. Now what why have you come here without Ophelia’s orders?”
****“I was just passing through when I saw the city’s library. There were a few things I wanted to do some research on.”
****“Including the Elemental Towers,” she noted. “You were attempting to break in.”
****“No, ma’am,” I assured her. “I just wanted to see them from a different angle.”
****“It’s rather difficult to see them in the middle of the night, is it not?” Therma asked. “What were you really doing?”
****As if waiting for the perfect moment, the egg in my backpack shook and the bag slid off my shoulder. It hopped around for a moment, then, levitating, spun to face the yellow Elemental Tower. I fell on top of it, careful not to break it, but keeping in pinned down.
****Maybe Therma hadn’t noticed. I picked up the bag, holding it firmly under my left arm, and faced Therma again. She stared at the bag, a puzzled expression on her face. No, she most certainly had noticed.
****“What’s in the bag?” she demanded.
****“It’s one of my Pokémon,” I said, releasing one of my pokéballs into the bag. Celsinge’s head popped out and arched an eyebrow at me.
****Therma’s eyes narrowed. “Why is it not in a pokéball?” she asked.
****“It just likes to sit in my bag. Isn’t that right Celsinge?” I said.
****Celsinge glared at me for a fraction of a second, but nodded at Therma. “Mrowr,” Celsinge confirmed.
****“See? Mrowr,” I repeated. Both Celsinge and Therma raised an eyebrow at me. I just shrugged.
****“Mhm,” Therma murmured. “I would normally turn you in to the police, hiding around private property in the dark,” she said. “But you don’t seem competent enough to be planning to break in. At least, not alone.”
****I stopped myself before I could argue. As long as she didn’t think I was capable of trouble, she’d probably just let me go.
****Of course, Meredith chose that moment to show up, and waved my Pokégear at me. “Tony! You forgot your…” she turned to look at Therma. “What’s going on here?”
****“Ah. So you do have an accomplice,” Therma said.
****“Accomplice?” Meredith asked. “What are you talking about?”
****“She thinks I’m trying to break in to the Towers,” I explained. I thought about it for half a second. “And by the way, I’m perfectly competent. I was the top kid in my class back home.” Of course, my class was only 15 people, all the kids my age from Neo Bay and Sunset Village. But Therma didn’t need to know that.
****“Book smarts aren’t all that matters,” Therma responded, with a dismissing wave of her hand.
****“That’s great, coming from a librarian,” I muttered.
****Therma didn’t hear me, or pretended not to. “If you’re not thieves, then prove it,” Therma ordered. “I challenge you to a Pokémon battle.”
****“Wait. How will a battle prove that we’re innocent?”
****Again, Therma ignored me. “We’ll use the standard rules of a Pokémon League Gym Battle. Are you acquainted with them?”
****I nodded. “Of course.”
****“Um,” said Meredith. “What do I do?”
****“Wait there,” Therma and I both said. “Please,” I added. Meredith just rolled her eyes and sat down.
****Therma marked off the boundaries of the field with string, firmly attached to the ground at each corner with a wooden stake. I guess she had made a habit of carrying around a battlefield with her, in case some trainer challenged her to a gym battle.
****Once the field was ready, we each released our first Pokémon.
At first, I planned on getting about halfway through the battle in this episode, otherwise it would seem too short, and the next one too long.
Then I realized that was a really dumb idea. So short and long episodes it is!

Thanks for reading! Please post any questions, answers, comments, or suggestions! Let me know what you liked or didn't like!

[Cyndadile]

Oops. A bit late. It's still Sunday somewhere, isn't it?

Part 27: Parting Words
****I began with Celsinge. Therma's first Pokémon was a small black crow with a hat, Murkrow.
****The bird immediately took off, flapping its wings loudly to get several yards above Celsinge.
****“Smokescreen!” I shouted. Celsinge filled the air with a thick black smoke, making it impossible for her to see. Murkrow flapped overhead, trying to see into the smoke. The small bird wasn’t blind, but its view of Celsinge was obstructed by the smoke.
****But Celsinge could see Murkrow’s outline in the moonlight.
****“Flamethrower!” I shouted. Celsinge let out a brief stream of flame, but Murkrow twisted off to one side. Murkrow dove towards the source of the flame, but Celsinge was smarter than that.
****“Kraaa!” Murkrow screeched, and the bird darted out of the fog, spinning to put out its flaming wings.
****“Return,” Therma ordered. “Go, Equill!”
****She released a dizzy-looking green creature. It looked kind of like an overweight bird that had flown into a window and stuck there; it stood upright, had a short, curved beak, and seemed a bit… flattened. It stumbled around for a second, but then took off. It was a surprisingly coherent flier.
****At Therma’s command, Equill spiraled through the smoke, clearing away Celsinge’s cover.
****“Confusion!” Therma shouted. The air pulsed with energy, invisible but almost tangible. The energy hit Celsinge and sent the small lion tumbling away.
****Celsinge recovered quickly, turning the tumble into a controlled roll just before she left the boundary of the arena.
****“Spice it up!” I said, and Celsinge let out a small burst of flame in a snort, setting herself on fire as she rolled back towards Equill.
****You’d think it would be painful, but Celsinge’s fur must be somewhat fire resistant.
****Celsinge’s back legs pushed out and, encased in a half dome of fire, she flew up towards the green bird.
****I felt the pulse of energy again, and the nimbus of flame surrounding Celsinge abruptly went out. Celsinge’s muscles seemed to relax as she reached the peak of her jump, and her eyes seemed to glaze over.
****“Return!” I shouted, throwing her pokéball out to catch her before she landed face-first on the hard ground.
****I chose my next Pokémon without a moment’s hesitation; Therma clearly specialized in flying types, and a grass type like Lupine would just get torn up. Koffing has never been happy with our relationship, so I saved him for a last resort.
****“Ecco, water pulse!” I shouted, releasing the dolphin.
****Before Ecco could begin its attack, Equill let out another pulse of energy. Ecco braced himself, and when the pulse ended sent out rings of water at the flying bird. Equill opened its beak to send out another wave of psychic energy.
****The two attacks passed through each other and seemed to cancel each other out.
****It was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Ecco’s water pulse seemed to move in time with the bird’s psychic pulses, and they met halfway between the Pokémon. Ecco’s water rings spread out as they hit that point in the center, as if they had hit an invisible wall and were expanding along it.
****The two Pokémon stood there for a good ten seconds, waiting for the other to run out of steam.
****Ecco won. The Equill, already tired from using confusion thrice already, stopped to breathe, and Ecco’s water rings enveloped the bird.
****“Eeee-oo-eeeee!” Ecco screeched as he rolled towards the fallen bird. The dolphin’s tail shined a metallic cyan before arching down onto Equill’s head.
****But Equill disappeared in a burst of red light.
****“Gashawk,” Therma said, releasing her third Pokémon, a large brown hawk.
****Ecco let out a blast of water as Gashawk descended and snatched the dolphin in its talons. It grabbed Ecco’s tail and lifted, giving Ecco no weapon to defend himself.
****“Water gun!” I suggested. Ecco flailed around, trying to get a shot at Gashawk, but he wasn’t strong enough to lift his entire body using his tail.
****Gashawk kept going up, and up, and up… and I realized that the bird was carrying Ecco high enough that even the cushioning techniques we practiced using Ecco’s water pulse wouldn’t stop Ecco from hitting the ground at bone-breaking speed.
****“That’s just not fair,” I muttered, and returned Ecco to its pokéball. “Alright, Lupine! Good luck!”
****My little wolf cub barked in defiance at the hawk circling around overhead. Two vines grew out of the collar of leaves around Lupine’s neck and grabbed the bird Pokémon’s wings, pulling it back to earth.
****“Kaaa!” Gashawk screeched, and it cut through Lupine’s vines.
****Lupine let out a startled “yip,” then unleashed a swarm of leaves onto the bird. Gashawk swatted them away, but a few of them tore into its tail.
****“Get him!” shouted Therma.
****Gashawk plummeted straight down at Lupine, at a speed that I was pretty sure would kill them both. Lupine flung himself to the side.
****At the last possible second, Gashawk pulled out of the dive and, without losing any speed, targeted Lupine again. Lupine crouched down under the bird, and Gashawk’s beak barely grazed Lupine’s back, but Lupine began bleeding profusely.
****Or maybe I’m over exaggerating. I’ve never really been comfortable with blood.
****I eyed Therma. She had two pokéballs stashed on her belt, and Gahsawk’s was still in her hand. So, unless she was hiding one somewhere sneaky (and the only possibilities that came to mind were somewhat disturbing), Gashawk was her last Pokémon.
****Lupine might not have been seriously injured. But it was hard to tell in the darkness, and it seemed like a lot of blood. I decided to play it safe.
****“Razor leaf!” I shouted. Lupine released another flurry of leaves into the air before I returned him.
****“Come on, Koffing, don’t let me down,” I muttered as I released my last Pokémon.
****I could immediately tell that I had made a mistake. Koffing spun around lazily once, then settled on the ground.
****“Please, Koffing!” I said. “Use poison gas!”
****Koffing just burped.
****“How about toxic?”
****“Huh,” the Pokémon answered.
****“Come on, Koffing! There’s a battle going on here!”
****Gashawk spiraled overhead, eyeing the purple sack lying on the ground. I didn’t think it was possible for a bird’s beak to curve in an amused smile, but somehow Gashawk was pulling it off.
****“Koffing!” came Meredith’s shrill voice. I cringed on reflex. Meredith only used that tone when she was pissed, or when I complained that I was tired. “What do you think you’re doing? Listen to your trainer!”
****Koffing just stared at Meredith. He opened his mouth.
****“No! Do what he says!”
****Koffing let out a dissatisfied grunt. Then he looked at me.
****I blinked at Meredith for a second. Then I managed to say, “p-poison gas?”
****A cloud of purple fog rolled out of Koffing’s pores.
****Wow. It actually worked. Maybe Meredith had some magic power of persuasion in addition to her fortune-telling.
****Gashawk whirled its wings around and created a small whirlwind, sending the poison gas spiraling away. I covered my mouth and nose with my shirt to make sure I didn’t inhale any toxins.
****I should have closed my eyes, too. They burned for a moment as they filled with the irritating fog.
****When I blinked them clear again, Koffing was bobbing up and down, avoiding the swooping Gashawk.
****“Spray some sludge!” I said. Koffing obeyed, spurting a glob of purple liquid out of one of its craters.
****Gashawk dodged the muck and came at Koffing again.
****“Get down here!” I said. Koffing bobbed over to me, and I whispered something to it. I’ve been getting better about non-verbal communication with my other Pokémon, but I hadn’t practiced much with Koffing.
****“Got it?” I asked.
****“Huh,” Koffing confirmed as he dodges a small gust of wind.
****Koffing flew up higher again and waited for Gashawk to lunge at him again. The bird was suspicious, and circles around wearily.
****“Tackle!” I shouted.
****Koffing tilted face-down and threw himself at the bird, but the bird dropped slightly to avoid the hit.
****Of course, it didn’t quite move fast enough. When Koffing was directly over the bird, he spat out a glob of purple fluid, trailing it along Gashawk’s back and into the cuts on its tail.
****“Hraaaaaaa!” the Pokémon screeched. It swung its wings viciously at Koffing, slashing wildly.
****“Stop that,” said Therma, returning Gashawk. “That’s no way to fight,” she murmured to the pokéball. She then turned to me. “Your passion in battle has proven to me that you are trustworthy. Take this badge and TM as proof of your victory.”
****“Uh. What?” I said. “Passion? How does this battle prove anything?”
****I felt Meredith put her hand on my shoulder and apply an uncomfortable amount of pressure on it. “Just take it,” she whispered.
****“A fair question,” Therma admitted as I took the badge and disc. “When you participate in as many battles as I have, you can learn something about a person by how they battle. Our battle showed me that, while imperfect, you do stand by a good set of morals.”
****I knew that Meredith would kill me if I pointed out that Therma hadn’t explained much, so I thanked the Gym Leader and departed to the Pokémon Center to heal my team.

****I awoke the next morning to find Meredith packing her things.
****“You’re finally up,” she noted.
****“Yeah. We leaving already?”
****“Well, I am.” Meredith sat down. “I’m going back to Hollowlog.”
****“You’re leaving?” I said. I felt a bit disappointed. Meredith and I were becoming close, after spending so much time travelling together.
****She seemed to sense my disappointment. “What? I figured you were planning to head home for the holidays, too.”
****“Holidays?” I checked the date on my Pokégear. “Next week is Christmas?”
****“Yeah. You didn’t realize?”
****“Apparently not.”
****“Well, we can meet up again in a couple weeks,” she said. “Think we can meet in Mistvale by 7th?”
****“Sure,” I said. Wow. Christmas was almost here. I can’t believe I’d forgotten. 12-year-old me would have been counting down the days since the end of October.
****“Alright. I’ll see you then,” she said, giving me a hug. It only hurt my marred back a little.
****I watched her put on her backpack and leave.
****“Wait!” I said as the door was about to close. She opened it enough to poke her head back inside.
****“I want you to take this,” I said, fumbling around in the pile of things beside my bed. I fished out Koffing’s pokéball.
****“What?”
****“Koffing will listen to you. He’s never really liked me, and I think he’ll be happier with you. Will you take him?”
****Meredith stared at the pokéball for a moment before taking it. “Are you sure Koffing will be ok with that?”
****“Koffing,” I called to one of the Pokémon on the couch. Actually, he was sleeping about half an inch above the couch. “I want you to go with Meredith.”
****Koffing looked sleepily between Meredith and I. “Huh huh,” it grunted, and floated after Meredith.
****“I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” I answered.
****Meredith paused. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ll take care of him.”
****“I’m sure he’ll be better off with you.”
****“Goodbye,” she said.
****“Bye.”
****The door closed with a thud, and Meredith was gone. I was alone. The room seemed so much emptier without another person there.
****“Eeee-ooo,” Ecco pointed out.
****“Yeah, you’re right,” I admitted. “You guys are still here.”
****I got dressed and packed my stuff, then Ecco, Lupine, Celsinge and I headed home.
Hmm. Maybe I should append Season 1 to include Episodes 26 and 27.

Like Tony, I'm going to be with family next week. Don't expect a regular episode. I do plan to post something important and plot-related, though, so don't miss it. I just might have to post it early or late, depending on whether or not I'm actually going to have my laptop (and internet connection).

[Cyndadile]

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Or just “Have a Nice Day” if you’re not the holiday type! Tony and I have been working hard to bring you this special Christmas installment of Topaz Adventures, and we finished it just in time! Any later, and I wouldn't have been able to upload until the New Year, which would have made it a pretty stupid Christmas present. Aren't I great at streching deadlines?

Part 28: Home Alone (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/92347724/28%20Home%20Alone%20-%20Christmas%20Special.pdf)

(The above is a link.)

Merry Christmas, my friends.