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Ace sniffled as he pushed himself off the ground, his claws gently running over his belly to remove the bit of grass that had stuck onto his body after he'd eaten the ground; yeuck, he could only imagine the germs he'd just gotten onto his body. He'd lost the pokemon he'd arrived here with and the only one he was 69% sure wasn't riddled with disease. He just had to find her! Unfortunately, he didn't have the greatest sense of direction and ended up right back at the lake. Ace let out a miserable sigh before he began looking, unfortunately he didn't see Brooke there, but another pokemon altogether. Another fire-type. "Uhm, excuse me," Ace approached the Growlithe hesitantly, "I'd hate to bother you, but have you seen a Piplup around here?"

Meanwhile, Brooke had only just now noticed she was missing one little tag-a-long, and she was not pleased with that. The Piplup huffed and slowed her run to a waddle before she stopped moving altogether. Looking around her immediate area she spotted a few other pokemon, but neither of them were her black and blue Charmander. Guuuuuuh, she was going to have to go back; he could be anywhere!

Brooke took one slow step forward, her head cocking to the side curiously, before she pulled her other foot to join the other. Guh, she'd barely even met the guy and already she'd lost him. This place wasn't that big, so she doubt she'd lost him forever. So he'd proooobably be okay, for a few minutes. She'd been itching to explore and, as mean as it was, Ace had just been slowing her down. So! She'd spend a few minutes, maybe an hour, by herself before she started searching for Ace.

Ace looked over the Growlithe, his eyes widening slowly when he realized he'd interrupted the pokemon from.. whatever he'd been doing. "Sorry," he was quick to apologize, ducking his head down in a bow. "I didn't mean to..." he trailed off, little hands clasping together right above his stomach. "Anyway, yes, uhm I did. Or maybe she lost me..." In the back of his mind, somewhere in between the slowly building panic and slight paranoia, he wondered if Brooke was already looking for him. That would be nice. "She's my, well not my friend, but we share the same trainer and we came here together. We were running in the forest and I lost sight of her..."

Brooke was lost in a daydream, something she did often whenever she had nothing pressing to concentrate on, when she heard a noise. It came from below and sounded like... muffled scuttling; swish, swish, swish. She stopped in her tracks, one foot already lifted up in the beginning of a step, and instinctively looked down. "Oh!" Brooke backpedalled three steps, her gaze still concentrated on the grass. "Well hey there," she squatted down to look at the Anorith she'd almost stepped on in her daze, the very idea making her chuckle softly. "Sorry about that, I didn't see ya," she apologized to Annie, mind already whirring to fabricate think of a relevant story that would go with this situation. Yes, yes... it was already coming to her mind. She'd been wandering the mountains...


Slowly but steadily Ace's gaze had fallen to the ground in a mixed display of worry and lack of confidence. He looked up however, quite suddenly, when PJ suddenly became suddenly. "Uhm, yes. I am," Ace answered hesitantly before he took two steps back, accommodating PJ's move forward. "Contests?" he raised an eyebrow, head tip accompanying his repetition. "Uhm, I don't.. think so?" He scratched the side of his head, soft blue eyes taking in the wiggling Growlithe in front of him. He offered a small smile. "I recently joined him, since he caught me when I was running away from a Combee," he admitted, a bit sheepishly, before he turned to look at PJ curiously. "Are you on a team too? And does your trainer do contests?"

Jerking out of her daydream Brooke offered her version of a smile down at Annie, the Anorith's optimistic response was certainly a pleasant surprise; pokemon who were nearly stepped on weren't usually so empathetic. "Heh, you certainly are," she agreed and with her right flipper reached out to brush the first blades of grass. He was on the same level, if not lower. She perked up when the other questioned her reasoning for being here. "Yup!" she chuckled gently, "are you a mind reader, are you just in the same situation as me?"


Sensing PJ's disappointment Ace bent his upper half over in a bow, "S-sorry!" he apologized, missing the smile and tail wag the Growlithe gave with his eyes on the ground. After a few moments of silence passed he peered up sheepishly up at him, "...I.. you seem pretty knowledgeable about them, maybe you can teach me?" he suggested quietly and it was only when he became top-heavy and stumbled forward did he finally straighten out his back. "I'm sure you'll find a trainer! You're a fire-type, and they're good against a few other types." If he remembered correctly, there were at least... four different types that their type had an advantage over. Surely, a trainer wouldn't pass that up! Especially if PJ planned to train until he was captured. A slow smile spread itself across Ace's face before he scratched his face when PJ mentioned finding Brooke, for a second he had almost forgotten about her... "Yeah! Thanks for helping me.. uhm..." his sentence trailed off when he realized he didn't actually know what the pokemon's name was and vice-versa. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Ace. What's your name?"

"Heh, I figured as much," Brooke proclaimed with a soft laugh. Although she wasn't sure exactly what kind of pokemon he was, she didn't think he was a psychic-type. "Really?" the penguin-like pokemon perked up when she began to hear similarities from Annie's story, though stopped when he began to look around. Out of confusion she followed suit, her eyes still trained out into the open area when the Anorith continued his sentence. "Well, it's the same with me! I was only with my trainer for a little bit before he shipped me and my friend off, he said something about us getting stronger," she explained. "Have you done any training yet?"


Ace couldn't help but to try and follow the quick back-and-forth of his new friend's tail, only to quickly realize that doing so would give him whip-lash. He stopped only after putting his hands on both sides of his head. "That would be great, thank you!" The prospect of being taught something new was exciting, albeit frightening, but like the other had pointed out earlier, it could be done once they found Brooke. Ace smiled gently, "I bet it'll only be a matter of time!" he said optimistically, his own tail now swinging back and forth.

"It's very nice to meet you, PJ. I think we should start in the forest, that's the last place I saw her."