Welcome to Gaia! ::

Luke raised an inward eyebrow at Claire's response. Odd that she would be so sympathetic towards a pokemon she had never known. He couldn't help but think it would be better if the Piplup weren't all right. If it ever met Lucas again, it was not unlikely that the encounter would turn to bloodshed...

He nodded, "Merry's bright, likely because she's so old. I'm grateful for that. Means that she'll listen to me even though she doesn't like me." The Chimecho's Hypnosis had proven useful on more than one mission.

He backed away from the bags and resumed stretching. "Snow?" He had to think about that one. He hadn't actually interacted with the Charmander directly, had he? "I believe the last time we spoke was the first Snow saw of me. I'm not really sure how he feels."

"What if you were two people? Would she listen to both, do you think?" He was pretty much just messing with her now, but it was an interesting thought to consider.

He finished his stretches and looked once more to the shelved pokeballs, brow furrowed slightly. "I've never battled recreationally myself, but I suppose it's worth a go..." First battle for both pokemon and trainer? It sounded like a disaster waiting to happen, but it made sense to accustom Snow to battle. One day the little Charmander would be a Charizard, a force to be reckoned with, and if it couldn't follow orders well, it would cause all sorts of trouble. He moved towards the shelves and retrieved his glasses from where he had left them, placing them on his eyes.

He nodded. There was a lot to it that would compel a pokemon to obey, after all, such as voice and scent in addition to appearance. It would probably throw off a less loyal pokemon, though, and Luke supposed that was all the more reason to establish some kind of dominion over Snow.

With a shrug, he took Snow's pokeball into his hand and pressed the release switch. The little fire-type yawned and looked around himself sleepily. Hadn't they already gone to bed...?

"Snow, this is a practice battle." The sudden address of the familiar voice caught the Charmander's attention, and he turned to look as the man pulled a black rectangle from the assortment of things he had left on the shelf. He glanced at the display, making note of the moves Snow knew how to perform. "Ready when you are, I suppose," he announced, somewhat absent. He wasn't terribly comfortable with the idea of battling for no good reason. In the past his pokemon had always been a means of incapacitating, defending, or accomplishing some goal that would be impossible for a human. His fine assortment of firearms had kept battles to a minimum.

Snow studied Luke's face for a while longer before turning to Zeus, his expression thoroughly confused. Practice battles were an expected norm for a starter pokemon, though, and so he took some solace from that.

"All right then." He looked up from the Pokedex display. "SmokeScreen."

Snow cast a glance at the trainer from over his shoulder. That was a command, right? It sounded like one. He turned back to the battlefield, breathing out a dark smog.

The electricity surged through the air, reflecting off the particles of smoke that masked Snow's location. Snow was fortunate enough to watch the light show from a safe distance.

Luke frowned slightly. It was difficult to tell where the Charmander was when the thing was swallowed up by a cloud of darkness, and he faced a similar quandary in searching for the enemy. "Ember, full circle," he decided.

What did 'full circle' mean...? Snow chose to disregard that part of the command and... Oh, but where was the Pikachu? He breathed short blasts of hot embers in a half-circle around his body, hoping it would make contact somewhere along the line.

Snow had yet to move since delivering his ember attack, leaving him more than close enough to feel the Thunder Wave's effects. He uttered a slightly distressed "charrr!" as the charge rippled through his small body.

Luke heard the sound and folded his arms. Paralysis would be an inconvenience, but it at least meant they could attack head-on without worrying about the Pikachu's Static ability.

"Tackle."

Snow complied, throwing himself in the direction of Zeus's earlier cry.

Luke frowned as the Charmander reeled backwards from the swift blow. As the SmokeScreen began to dissipate, it was becoming easier and easier to see the combating pokemon. Perhaps that was working against them.

"SmokeScreen." The less visible the lower-leveled fire-type was, the better off it would be. Snow inhaled in preparation for the command's execution, but a surge of paralysis prevented him from completing it. He shivered slightly, dropping to all fours in an effort to hold his ground.

Luke bit back a growl of frustration. His trigger finger was screaming that it could end the whole ordeal quickly and efficiently if it could only find a gun. Heck, if he caught them off-guard he could probably manage to incapacitate - or at least immobilize - them without the aid of a firearm. An impatient foot began to tap irritably against the ground.