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[Vortigern]

“There’s just so much more I want to see,” she had said. “I don’t want to spend my whole life being the boss’s daughter with the pet incinerator.” Isolde, her beautiful six-tailed vulpix, had stood as ever at her side.

“I understand that,” her father had replied. “I wanted to see the world too, once. But it’s not a good world we live in, Cait,” he had told her. “There are people out there, and pokémon too, who would kill you without a second thought.”

“So what?” she had said. “Why should I be forced to live a sheltered life in some boring little village just because you’re scared of everything?” She had known that wasn’t the right thing to say, but it hadn’t mattered. Her father had looked so crestfallen, so disappointed that she wouldn’t, couldn’t agree with him. She’d had no choice but to apologise, to hug him and tell him it was alright. She wasn’t going to forget about him, disappear off into the great wide world and never think about him again. She knew it was just the two of them now, that his little mining business would suffer without her and Isolde around, that he would be alone again.

“I know you’re going to leave sooner or later,” he had said to her the next day. “You’re too much like your mother to be satisfied with this life.” They had spent the next couple of weeks making sure that Caitlin had everything she would need on her ‘big adventure’, and then she had set off, but not until everyone at her father’s company had thrown her a little goodbye party. She had almost burst into tears then, almost decided not to go, but she was set on this path by that point.

“So that’s how come I ended up on the road with only my little girl for company,” she said, scratching Isolde’s head with one hand while the vulpix stretched and let out a deeply satisfied growl. She looked up at the young man sat across from her in the little common room of the hostel by the side of the road between Cerulean and Saffron. “So what’s your story?”




((That young man is whichever one of you gets in here first.))

[some_weirdGuy]

((Haha, doesn't help me though. Also, lucky I changed my mind about my character starting off near Viridian.))

Claire strolled down the road along the area designated on her map as 'route 8'... or was it 'route 5'. She scratched her head, scrunching the map slightly as she turned it this way and that. Eventually she gave into her temptation and, removing her backpack, rummaged around until she found her compass.

"At least we're out of the city now," she said to her shroomish as it tried squeezing through a gnarled root on the side of the path to get at the composted leaf litter below.
"You're too big to fit through there now, you silly shroom," she said, looking back to her map. She traced her finger along the path, then looked up ahead.
"Says there should be a house or something up ahead... I think." She straightened her cap, and adjusted the coiled rope slung over her shoulder.
"Ugh... what kind of pokémon ranger can't even read a map properly?" she groaned, stuffing the compass back into her pocket and folding the map away. At least she was pretty well certain this was route 5 now.
Skirmish was enjoying himself immensely as they walked along. He never seemed to like the apartment in Saffron City.
Well it's certainly better than a pot plant, she thought to herself, remember the single shrub under which the shroomish had made his bed back in the city.

She crested a hill and now saw what the small building on her map had been. It was a neat little hostel, tucked away to the side of the road. Another person was just walking inside, the first person she'd seen since leaving the city outskirts.
"Maybe we should go in?" she said out loud to Skirimish, who had now come to stand by her side. After a pause for consideration, she continued walking, not noticing that the shroomish was sticking very close now.

Something had him on edge...

[{IRS}Athos]

((I got here first. ))

"My story? Not very interesting, I'm afraid," said Killian, running his fingers through his hair. "My parents are both bird-watchers by hobby, so I guess that I picked it up from then. They run a small postal service in Fuschia. A whole fleet of trained Pidgeys..." He grinned. "I've been helping them raise them since before I can remember." He stroked the feathers of the Spearow sitting on his shoulder. "Ariel and I have been together for two years now. She's the only Pokemon I have trained to fight: I figure that if I'm out in the wild trying to track down a stray messenger bird, or raid nests, I could use some protection." He looked somewhat enviously at Isolde. "Although if I had a Vulpix as magnificent as yours, I doubt that many wild Pokemon would dare challenge me."

He laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back. "Have you seen any Pidgey nests in the area, by any chance? I'm always on the lookout to add new birds to the postal service's flock."

Edited by {IRS}Athos, 27 August 2011 - 01:29 PM.

[Vortigern]

"No, I'm afraid not," Caitlin told him. "Besides, I wouldn't even know what to look for. We only get spearows up in the mountains. They all look a lot worse for wear than your Ariel, though." The spearow chose that moment to puff out its chest, almost as though it could tell a compliment when it heard one. "You know, I sort of assumed everybody from Fuchsia would keep all the weird pokémon from the safari park. Have you ever been in?"

[mike_]

"The key," Jorah Lannister said, "is to put all of your weight behind it. You've got to draw back, shift your balance, and then reach out and tap them on the noggin. That's how you'll do it." As he spoke, he went through each of the different poses, using a tree branch as a makeshift club. He brained an imaginary enemy, then turned to view Yorick's process.

The little mammal was crouched over a rotten tree stump, a twig held in its paw. It delicately inserted the stick into a gaping hole in the stump, held it there steadily for a few seconds, and then withdrew its prize - a dozen small insects stuck to it. Yorick then quickly devoured the snack, flicking its gaze at Jorah as it did.

Jorah tossed his branch to the ground and sighed. "How are you going to learn to defend yourself if you don't practice?"

In answer, Yorick stood to his feet and set aside the twig, instead taking up the length of iron pipe that it used as a bludgeon. Most people thought that the species used the bones of their mothers as weapons and helmets - this was not the case. They used whatever materials that they could find for weapons: tree branches, lengths of pipe and of course, the bones of larger pokémon. As for their "helmets", they were actually extended elements of its skull that served to protect it from predators and others of its kind. Of course, it gave them a ghastly appearance, and they were looked upon with superstition by many people.

Turning back to the stump, Yorick stared at it and, faster than Jorah would have expected, struck out and swept the upper half of the stump away. It exploded in a cloud of dust and debris that scattered across the clearing in a line nearly fifteen feet long.

Yorick spun back around to face Jorah and leaned on its pipe, his bony features somehow conveying a look of smugness.

Jorah pursed his lips and said, "I'll ask the manual. We'll practice for a little longer, and then we're hitting the road."

---

Yorick was perched atop Jorah's shoulders, gazing at the clouds. Back in Pallet Town, at the start of their journey to Pewter City, he would not have dared let the cubone do such - but after a few weeks' travel they had grown considerably closer and more comfortable in each others' company.

Yorick sat up and rapped Jorah lightly on the head with his pipe, and began gesturing frantically.

"Right, right," Jorah muttered. "I'll hurry." He quickened his pace to a light jog and sped along the path worn in the ground, the pack slung over his shoulders and the small pokemon sitting on them bounced up and down as he crested a small hill.

Farther down the path, a brunette was trying to scramble up a tree one-handed, a tiny green pokemon that Jorah had never seen before held in her other hand. Below them was a juvenile raticate - nearly three feet long, it had incisors as long as Jorah's hand was broad. Its naked tail whipped the grass as it tried to climb up after them.

"Right," Jorah said. He swallowed - Yorick had never actually fought another pokemon before, and even though he seemed to be more intelligent than most of them, Jorah didn't like the idea of trying to fight off a wild predator. But if he didn't make a move, that girl and her own pokemon could get seriously hurt - or even killed. He shook his head, almost dislodging Yorick. The cubone was shaking with anticipation and distress at seeing the wild, aggressive raticate.

"Yorick, you're up."

[Neth]

"Come on Nero", said Keiran, the Nidoran had been lagging behind after their long walk, probably because of the training he had given Nero that morning, where he managed to get his horn stuck in a tree, and with Cerulean now in sight Keiran was excited to get there. He had never really visited anywhere else than Pewter City, but with his age and new-found freedom it gave him he decided he wanted to see more of the world. A few trips to Cerulean before he started travelling properly would get him well used to it. He would see the world, as soon as he could get Nero to hurry up. Reluctantly, he picked Nero up and carried him in his arms, Nero really wasn't as light as he had been last time he had done that. "You better get used to this, we'll be doing a lot more walking and I need someone to do it with" he said, wondering if Nero could understand him, and then started walking towards Cerulean again.

[some_weirdGuy]

"You nasty little anklebiter Get AWAAYYYY!" wailed Claire, pushing shroomish up higher into the tree above while quickly tucking her leg up to avoid the wild animals teeth.
The aggressive little bugger was foaming at the mouth as it zealously snapped and jumped, scrambling to bite at the trainer. Claire's leg hurt where it had been bitten by the miniature beast, and if she weren't so preoccupied avoiding another nasty bite she'd have been embarrassed at having such a small thing buffaloing her like this.
She managed to pull herself up into the branch, and out of immediate danger her fear turned to anger.
"YOU'RE SUPPOSE TO BE SHY!" she yelled at it, lashing out at the creature mid jump and, shocking, landing a good hard kick.

The blow sent the creature sprawling, where it sat still. At first she didn't move from the branch, but after a moment what had actually happened dawned on her.
"Oh god.. oh god I killed it" she hesitantly slid down off the branch and tentatively walked toward the rat. No longer thrashing around and foaming at the mouth, the creature seemed no where near as threatening. There was blood on its face where she had hit it and she could see that it had taken a face full of spores before that, but as she took another step closer she realised it was still alive and was panting heavily. Seeing her approaching it sprang up, rubbed at its injured face(in a very rat-like manner), and giving an mighty snarl bound off the path, screeching into the distance.

Claire let out a sign, limping back over to shroomish. Lucky the bite hadn't been too serious, as those long incisors ((thank you Mike you taught me a new word )) could have done much worse damage. She went to reach out her left arm and realised she couldn't move it. Shroomish seemed to be looking guiltily at the arm too and she saw that a large, sore looking, rash had spread along it.
"Ugh, Brilliant! Just Brilliant!!" she raged, stomping her foot angrily and wincing as the bite twinged.

She looked over and realised shroomish seemed upset,
"Oh no baby its not your fault" she said soothingly(though if he understood her then he didn't seem to show it). She slumped down, reached over with her good arm and petted him with a gloved hand, which seemed to smooth things over as shroomish stopped looking glum.
"Its my fault really, I just got caught up in the moment and forgot all about your spores".

Shroomish scattered spores when they felt threatened, which could paralyse, poison or put to sleep any who came in contact with them.
So concerned was Claire with the aggressive Raticate that she had forgotten to be wary of this when picking him up (around home shroomish never seemed to feel threatened, so the effect-spores were a non-issue).

Just then a young man came running from down the path. Shroomish looked startled and backed again towards the tree, but Claire just sat where she was. She sincerely hoped he hadn't seen her cased up the tree by the raticate... but she doubted it.

"Hey, are you okay" the guy called out as he reached Claire. She saw that he had a cubone with him. It was looking around excitedly, brandishing a metal pipe in one hand and holding its other hand out defensively.
"Yeah... I think I am now" She could have swore the stranger looked disappointed, and the cubone definitely made no secret of it(smacking its pipe into the ground and slumping down to the dirt with a 'humph').

After a quick look around the mans eyes fixed on Claire
"You're injured" he said, indicating the leg where blood had started to spread from the gash and strain her shorts,
"yeah, a uh..." Clair started
"raticate" said the man, nodding
"... yeah" she said, looking down and blushing what kind of pokemon ranger gets beaten into submission by a raticate?
after a moment she looked up at the man again
"I don't suppose you could pass me my backpack could you?" she nodded her head towards the pack, which sat to the other side of the path,
"...I packed a first aid kit so there should be some bandages"
"right" said the young man, nodding and gathering it up.
One handed, she wrapped and tightened the bandage around the wound gingerly.
"hey, let me help you." said the stranger, finishing up the bandage for her and then moving to help her up to her feet. She was grateful, though it was unnecessary.
"You should definitely get some proper medical attention, you don't know what sort of diseases or other nasties that raticate's bite could have..."
"Yeah, I know" she replied a bit tersely (greatful though she was, it still felt a little condescending to have this stranger pointing something so obvious).
The man continued as if he hadn't noticed,
"and I'm not sure what to make of your arm"
She looked down at it again, grabbing it with the other hand and lifting it up slightly, then letting it fall limply to her side again
"oh, it should be alright in a little while... I hope"

After she got the bag back on her back, and collected the stuff which she'd dropped in her haste, she called out to Skirmish (who was doing his able best to stay on the opposite side of the tree to the inquisitive Cubone, but abandoned this post to rush behind Chaire instead)
"my names Jorah", said the man warmly(though giving the shroomish a slightly puzzled look as it rushed past) "and this is Yorick" he continued, indicating his approaching companion
"Clair" she replied with a smile-turned-grimace (as she twinged her leg again),
"And this is Skirmish."


((sorry that I ruined your battle opportunity mike))

Edited by some_weirdGuy, 28 August 2011 - 07:00 AM.

[mike_]

Though uncomfortable, Claire had managed to walk under her own power - the effect of Skirmish's spores only ran skin deep, and would fade away after a few hours. The wound to her leg was more serious. Without more medical attention than either of them could give alone in the field, it could become infected with dire consequences.

Fortunately, the pair of travelers had managed to find their place on Claire's map, and located a roadside inn. After two hours' hiking - with Claire needing assistance over a few rough patches - they found it, a squat, two-story structure with an ancient, faded sign hanging over the door.

Holding Skirmish in the crook of her elbow, Claire limped in as Jorah held the door for her. Yorick was still seated on his shoulders. They entered into a common room - another pair, a young man and woman, sat near the fireplace. One of their pokemon - a six-tailed vulpix - dozed within it, its body heat collecting in the stones and spreading crisply throughout the room. The man was feeding bits of his meal to his pet spearow by hand while idly chatting with the girl, until he looked up and saw the newcomers. Coming to his feet, he stepped over and stretched out his hand to Jorah.

"I'm Killian," he said as they traded grips. "the innkeeper is around here somewhere, I'm sure she'll be right back." He seemed to notice Claire for the first time and asked, "Are you alright?"

"A raticate tried to take a chunk out of my leg, and my shroomish hit my arm with his spores, but other than that I'm fine." She paused for breath. "Do you know anything about cleaning wounds? I took a class back home, but don't remember much..."

The other girl walked over. "I do, back in my father's mining town I helped old Gunnar deliver tauros calves. Once." The others looked at her, skeptics. "The rest of the time I did the stitching whenever someone was hurt in the onyx tunnels. Come with me... Claire? Claire. I've got some supplies up in my room." Claire nodded her acquiescence, albeit reluctantly, and the two headed out.

"What was that pokemon she was holding?" Killian inquired. "It looked like a sick parasect. A very, very sick parasect.

Jorah shrugged. "She calls it a shroomish, I've never seen one either. Don't let it's spores get you, though - I saw it knock out a raticate in just a few seconds." Killian whistled a low note of appreciation; as if called, his spearow hopped from its perch and glided over to land on his shoulder, locking eyes with Yorick.

"Want to spar?"

[{IRS}Athos]

"A friendly match, I take it," said Killian. "What shall it be to? First blood?"

"First blood's fine with me," replied Jorah. "I doubt either of us would want our pokemon to be seriously injured, right?"

Killian looked at Jorah's cubone. "Somehow, I think that you'll have much less to worry about." He looked at Jorah for a moment. "May I?" At the other man's nod of acquiescence, he held out his hand for Yorick to sniff. As he scratched the cubone behind the neck, he regarded the length of metal pipe that the pokemon was using. "Improvised weapons? Apparently they're more intelligent than I thought."

Ariel pecked at his hand, and he chuckled. "No, I'm not insulting your intelligence. Not many messenger birds can fly both ways." He turned to Jorah. "See, spearows are usually superior to homing pidgeys, simply because they can fly between any locations they've learned, while most pidgeys only know "home". Spearows are a bit harder to catch, though, so..." He stopped suddenly.

"What?" asked Jorah.

"I'm sorry, I tend to ramble about the postal service," said Killian. "Shall we get to that friendly match, then?" He motioned to the door.

[mike_]

"First blood is fine, or we can just go until you feel is too far," Jorah answered. Not far from the hostel was a clearing in the forest. Yorick loped ahead of him and, satisfied with the ground, came to a stop and turned to face Killian and his Spearow. "Yorick was raised back in Professor Oak's lab. I've been teaching him from a combat manual, and he's a quick learner, but he hasn't actually fought another pokemon before. Hopefully he can learn something from this."

"Sounds fine to me," Killian returned, his spearow eying the proceedings from his shoulder. "Ariel was a messenger bird before I took her for my own. We have to train all of them to fend for themselves for when they're out running letters to people."

"Groovy," Jorah said appreciatively, "shall we begin, then?" Yorick glanced back and forth between the two trainers, eyes cautious.

Killian smiled. "We shall. Ariel," He whistled a single thin, high-pitched note. Ariel spread her wings - further than Jorah would have guessed - and took flight, messing Killian's hair. She flapped her wings several times until she found a small thermal to carry her weight, then circled lazily not far above them.

Jorah looked at Yorick. The little mammal was regularly tapping the end of his pipe on the ground and tracking Ariel with his eyes, not leaving his place. The spearow changed the angle of her wings, pointing her beak gently towards the earth.

Suddenly Yorick leapt to the side. Less than a heartbeat later Ariel swept through the place he had formerly occupied, whipping the grass there and sending a gust of wind in her wake. The bird was fast. But Yorick was smart.

As Ariel began to lift out of her dive, rapidly flapping her wings to slow her descent and regain elevation, the cubone made his move. He ran and jumped towards Ariel, tracking her movement, and threw his length of pipe. It spun end over end and connected along her flank, but much of the power behind the blow had been lost, and she was struck with the body of the pipe, not the sharp ends. Momentarily unbalanced, Ariel began to fall, cawing in surprise at the attack. The pipe clattered to the ground and the spearow took back to the sky.

"Well," Jorah said, scratching the stubble on his chin. "Your move again."

[{IRS}Athos]

Killian grinned at the other trainer, then gave a sharp whistle with a rising tone. Ariel screeched her reply and dove towards Yorick, eyes glittering. At the last moment she pulled up, beating her wings in Cubone's direction and sending sand flying into his eyes. As the cubone tried to rub the sand out of its eyes, Ariel descended on him, pecking and scratching.

"I think that's enough!" said Jorah. Killian whistled sharply, and Ariel reluctantly returned to his shoulder, with a last scathing screech at Yorick. Killian handed her a cube of bread, although he kept an eye on Yorick.

"I hope that Ariel didn't hurt him too badly," he said. "She gets a bit worked-up sometimes. It was a good match." He held out his hand for Jorah to shake.

[Neth]

"Isn't it lovely here?", said Keiran as he strolled through the woods south of Cerulean with Nero, reluctant to stay in the city because of the ridiculous prices. Nero was making happy-noises,being rested and having repeatedly attacked some small bug Pokemon Keiran wasn't familiar with. Despite the nice atmosphere Keiran was careful not to stray far from the path, getting lost in the wild could be a cause of death, more so here than in Viridian where he knew a lot of the forest from his walking, the glades at least, remembering the many dark shapes in the gloom of the forest that he'd ran from when he strayed too far in.
"Come on little guy, back to the path for a while" he said to Nero, wondering back to the path "If we don't find somewhere to stay soon then we'll need to turn back"

[some_weirdGuy]

Caitlin had removed the bandage on Claire's leg, and had set to work with a proficiency that spoke of long, wearying practice.
"You're lucky," Caitlin told her as she examined the wound.
"A raticate bite could be much worse than this. I've heard stories about bites getting infected and people needing whole limbs amputated But yours is shallow, so I'd say you got off lightly."

"Yeah," Claire agreed. "I think I have Skirmish to thank for that. The raticate went for him first, and he gave it a face full of spores. I think that just made it angrier at first, but then I guess it started working. Damn rat ended up running off."

An awkward silence grew for a moment. Claire gritted her teeth a little as the wound was cleaned. Looking over she saw Caitlin's vulpix taking a long yawn, a small flame flickering in the open air above its mouth.

Shroomish did not seem to like this one bit, and had gone from cautious curiosity to vehement aversion, backing away from the relaxed-looking fox.

"Thats a lovely looking... flareon?" said Claire, nervously biting her bottom lip as she grasped for the name.

"Vulpix" corrected Caitlin absent-mindedly. "And thank you. Isolde and I have been together for a while now." She looked over and smiled as her beautiful fox settled down on the floor, wrapping its tails around its body and looking towards the shroomish, its expression unreadable.
"Right, vulpix. Sorry, still haven't quite learnt all the new pokémon's names yet" replied Claire, taking a sharp breath as she endured another stinging swab. Happily, Caitlin seemed to be finishing up now. She tied a fresh bandage over the wound, and stood up.

"There we go, all done." She smiled. "You'll have to keep an eye on it just in case, and ideally replace the bandage every couple of days at least, but it should be all right now."

Claire murmured a thanks, wondering if all strangers would be this friendly. She certainly seemed to be off to a good start.

"I've never seen a pokémon like that before," Caitlin added, nodding towards the shroomish inquisitively.

"Oh, its a shroomish," answered Claire. "They aren't from Kanto, they're from Hoenn. I'm from Hoenn. I moved down here a little while ago. I'm looking to get out and become a pokémon ranger!" she concluded excitedly, puffing her chest out slightly. She limped (only slightly) back over to grab her stuff, thankful that both arms were now working, though the rash was still present and the skin was sore and itchy. She adjusted her pack and rope, pulling her small jacket forward a bit and adjusting her cap.

"What about you?" she asked with a smile. "What brings you to this fine, raticate-free part of the woods?"



((VORT: Sorry for all the edits here, but I want to keep this as well-written and grammar'd and whatnot as I can. Also, try to avoid using other people's characters too much, especially beyond the point where they interact with your own. So putting in what Caitlin is thinking is definitely overstepping the mark. You don't even have any idea what sort of person she is yet, remember, so please don't go defining other people's characters for them, whether you meant to or not.))

Edited by some_weirdGuy, 31 August 2011 - 05:10 AM.

[Vortigern]

"A Ranger?" Caitlin was surprised. "I can't say I've ever heard of a ranger coming off worst against a wild raticate." Claire's gaze fell. "But I guess everyone has to start somewhere," she added, a little uncomfortably. She was getting the distinct impression that this girl with her little foreign mushroom had little, or indeed no idea at all of what to expect in the real world. "Look, if you're serious about training for the Ranger Service, you're going to need to learn a lot. For one thing, you'll need to learn everything there is to know about every single type of pokémon to be found in Kanto. For another, your little shroomish-" the name felt strangely foreign on her tongue - "will need to react a lot faster. If a raticate is catching you by surprise, what chance would you have against, say, an angry raichu?" Claire looked first taken aback, then crestfallen, then merely blank at the name-dropping. "You don't even know what a raichu is?" Claire shook her head, apparently dumbfounded. "They're the adult form of a pikachu, extremely dangerous. Very fast, powerful lightning affinity, and not half bad at climbing trees either, so your escape from the raticate wouldn't have worked either."

"How do you know so much about all this?" Claire wondered aloud. Caitlin was almost tempted into a smile by childish pride, but this was too serious a matter. This poor girl would get herself killed if she wasn't more careful.

"Because I've lived here in Kanto all my life, and I've been reading about pokémon for most of it. And a lot of stuff you just pick up as you go along. We occasionally get raichus in Viridian Forest, and sometimes they come and sniff around the bins in Pewter. Urban sprawl's changing everything for the wild animals," she added. Claire looked almost on the verge of tears. Hardly surprising, Caitlin reflected. It's not been a great day for her. "I'm going to be downstairs," Caitlin told her. A thought struck her then. "In fact, I'll go get you my copy of the Pokédex. It's basically an encyclopedia of Kantonine pokémon. Just pick a page and start reading."

She fetched the book and left Claire to it. Isolde strolled down the stairs at her side, looking up at Caitlin with an expression that she was sure conveyed pity, despair and contempt in equal measure.

"I know, pet, I know," Caitlin murmured. "Legends preserve her if she thinks she can make it on her own."

[The Best Guest]

"AND STAY OUT UNTIL YOU HAVE MY MONEY!" roared an angry employee at the Celadon Game Corner as he threw jak out of the door.

"You don't understand I just need one more coin. I can win, that next time I pull the lever it will hit jackpot!" pleaded Jak

The employee who refused to listen to this addicts half-baked scheme returned promptly to work. Jak simply sat in the grass outside as he heard the cries of victory and frustration coming out of the Game Corner. Strickz, Jak's Doduo, walked over from his usual spot under a tree outside of the casino.

"Alright buddy, let's just walk home, I have work in the morning again." Jak said. He then proceeded to walk down the path back to his home at the Celadon Condominiums. As he got closer he noticed what little belongings he had that weren't gambled away were strewn about the yard. There was also a sign on the door reading "Evicted due to failure to pay monthly charges. Have a good day."

"I can't believe this!" Yelled Jak "How am I supposed to pay for a house without any money?"
Strickz went over to ground and starting pecking at acorns that had fallen to ground.
"Well at least one of will be full tonight." He said as he looked at Strickz "It's not even worth going to work in the morning. Let's just start over in the wild. See the world, how's that sound?"
Strickz gave him a semi-blank look, Squawked and went back to pecking at the ground.
"Well I'll take that as a yes." Jak said laughing

That said Jak grabbed his backpack, the few items he had and went on his way. Not knowing where he was going or what he was going to do once out there.

[Vortigern]

With directions from their hostess, Caitlin went outside to find Killian and the other new arrival, to whom she had not yet been introduced. The directions took her into the little copse out the back of the hostel, and then into a clearing maybe twenty feet across and roughly circular, in which she found both the men and their pokémon. As she arrived Killian whistled sharply and his spearow, Ariel, came fluttering easily back to his shoulder. She saw the other man's cubone sit up off the ground, looking a little disgruntled but unhurt. The two of them spoke, said something friendly to one another, and shook hands.

"Sparring, is it?" she asked, stepping clear of the trees, Isolde by her side. "Mind if we join in? Issy must be getting out of practice by now."

"Fine by me," Killian agreed. "This is Jorah, by the way." Jorah held out his hand again, this time for Caitlin to shake. She obliged.

"And this is Yorick," he informed her, gesturing to the cubone, which was now standing at Jorah's side, looking resolute and like it was trying to be threatening, a look that was somewhat enhanced by the hefty metal pipe in its little hands.

"I'm Caitlin," she said, "and this is Isolde. So who's up first?"

[mike_]

"How do you feel about another round, Yorick?" Jorah looked down at the cubone, who was again rapidly tapping his cudgel on the turf. The little mammal sniffed and cocked his head at Jorah.

Laughing, he continued, "Alright, alright. Maybe you'll do better with someone more on your level."

Caitlin and her vulpix made their way to the other side of the clearing. She was speaking to it in a low voice, apparently psyching Isolde up for the fight at hand. Whatever she was doing, it was working - the fox's tails began to uncoil and plume up. Caitlin stepped back, her expression satisfied as waves of heat began to emanate from Isolde.

Jorah gulped. He'd never seen a fire-type in combat before - how would Yorick cope with this?

"Are you ready?" Caitlin shouted. Jorah nodded.

Isolde lifted her head, opened her mouth and barked - a shower of small, burning meteors leapt from her mouth. They were not very large, but there were so many of them. The embers arced high above the ground to ignite the grass, landing in a tight ring around Yorick. To his credit, the cubone did not flinch - much. He blanched at the smells of sulfur and methane, but began to lope forward at a brisk pace despite the hail of fire.

A few of the embers made contact with his head, but bounced harmlessly off of the thick bone there. Another came close to one of his arms, singing the fur, but Yorick was able to avoid the brunt of it.

Then he was clear and running. Lowering his head like a ram and holding his pipe aloft, Yorick jumped forward and charged Isolde. Surprised at the assault, the vulpix shirked away and began to retreat, taking a defensive stance. But Yorick was upon her, then, striking along her flanks with his club.

But then he overextended his arm, and the fox seized on his arm with her teeth. The thick fur there made it difficult for her to break the skin, was she violently worried the limb while he tried to free himself, unable to use his club but instead bludgeoning with his skull.

One of them slipped up, and Isolde's grip was broken. The pair circled one another, hackles raised.

"Now that's interesting," Jorah said, "that's very interesting."

[Vortigern]

"Careful, Issy," Caitlin called out, confident of the vulpix's skills but worried for her love nonetheless. Isolde barked briefly, almost as though replying to Caitlin, telling her not to fret so much. I know what I'm doing, Caitlin felt she could almost hear Isolde saying. As if to back up that opinion, Isolde leapt back, away from the cubone, and started making hocking noises, as though she were about to cough up a hairball, but Caitlin knew better - she had seen this move before. The cubone didn't know what was coming, though, and scurried forward to take advantage of what he perceived as Isolde's distraction. But as he came close, Isolde stopped coughing and spat. A translucent gobbet of whatever-it-was flew from Isolde's jaws, connecting full on with the cubone's metal pipe. The viscous liquid bubbled ferociously as it dripped down the club, and the cubone suddenly yelped in pain and fright as it found the club suddenly much too hot to hold. At least she only went for the club, Caitlin thought to herself, smiling proudly. She had seen that terrifying substance land on a troublesome geodude once; it had sent the poor creature half-crazy, and it had eventually doused itself in the plunge pool under the cliffs outside her village. It had not come up again. Yorick, now bereft of his weapon, retreated sharply.

Caitlin called across the clearing to Jorah. "How's that for interesting?"

[Neth]

Coming across a small inn, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, Keiran went inside. The room was warm, but he suspected that it was just him used to being outside more. Seeing nobody around he sat down in one of the chairs next to one of the windows, Nero jumped up onto his lap, unexpectedly heavy again, and curled up there. He didn't quite fit anymore, but it just made it funnier that he still tried. Keiran closed his eyes, meaning to listen until the innkeeper came through, but quickly fell asleep, not realizing how tired he was.

[The Best Guest]

The morning sun smiled over the two new travelers. Jak watched as Strickz 2nd head woke up,(because as we all know doduo's only sleep one head at a time.) then a baby Ekans slithered by only then to be gobbled up by the giant bird. He laughed at his Pokemon's simple minded life as the Doduo went back to resting on the ground.

"If I could only be as worry free as you big guy" Jak whispered half to himself.

He thought to himself how on first impressions alone anyway would consider this Pokemon extremely dumb, but Jak knew that only in battle does Stickz's sometimes scary intelligence come out. He remembered the first time that Strickz fought against another Doduo.

------FLASHBACK-----

"STRICKZ NO!!!!" Jak yelled as a wild Doduo darted of a bush and attacked Strickz. Strickz was hit twice in the body by the feral Doduo's beaks. "Strickz do something!" Strickz ran and kicked one of the Doduo's head with his talons, surprisingly unlike most Doduos, Strickz claw marks did not leave a scratch line, instead it left a rather large hole where flesh had been. After the fight and careful examination Jake realized that Strickz's talons had a genetic deformity, one which left hooked barbs on the mid section of each talon.


-----End FLASHBACK------

Indeed since then, not only had Strickz's fighting ability gotten Jak out of some sticky situations so did Strickz's speed let jak escape from the bookies on multiple occasions.