Welcome to Gaia! ::

"That was... different," Todd remarked as he recalled Typhlosion, glancing across the field at his son. "What was that? Seismic Toss?"

Keegan's completely awestruck expression was more than enough to indicate that he didn't know for sure, and he shrugged. "Uh, no, I don't think so. I think she was... improvising." Yeah, that seemed like a decent enough explanation: An improvised Seismic Toss. It had been effective enough and Keegan idly wondered if the Golem could actually learn that move as he adjusted his stance again, watching and waiting to see what his father's last Pokemon would be. He seriously hoped that it wouldn't be The Dame, for as old as she was, she was also crazy experienced. The few times he'd seen her in action she'd been breathtakingly amazing, but was she even capable of battling now? If it wasn't The Dame he was about to face, Keegan had the sneaking suspicion that it'd be a Water or Grass-type as it'd be pretty much the perfect, one-hit-KO counter for the Golem and it wasn't like his father had been a Fire-type specialist or anything like that.

Or had he?

Keegan felt as though the joke was on him as he watched his father's third and final Pokemon take shape in front of Tierra, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud. No, it certainly wasn't The Dame, but it was a Pokemon he knew, and he almost fell to his knees as he gazed upon the dual Fire/Fighting-type Blaziken. As Typhlosion was the mother to Riza's little Eris, Blaziken was the mother of the Torchic that Keegan had delivered to Jaeshan what felt like forever ago. It was both hilarious and depressing - hilarious because he was facing yet another Fire-type and depressing because Keegan had absolutely no idea what had happened to any of Jaeshan's Pokemon, and recalling his friend's death had sent a painful jolt through his midsection. Despite his conflicting emotions Keegan somehow managed to pull himself together, mostly because he remembered that a Fighting-type had the ability to flatten a Rock-type and that if he really wanted to win this - which he did - he needed to focus. "R-rock Blast," he choked out, his voice still a bit shaky from his outburst, but it was a command nevertheless and he wiped a random tear from his cheek.

Tierra gave a pained grunt as she reached down and began to haul up chunks of the ground, shooting Blaziken a distasteful look as she began to launch them one by one. Blaziken's expression was one of fierce determination and she looked exactly like a skilled martial artist as she flawlessly sidestepped the barrage of rocks that Tierra threw at her. She was obviously experienced and knew what she was doing, as Todd hadn't so much as said a word to her.
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As soon as the two-by-four had made contact with Leroy's head, Miharu's eyes went wide and she dropped the weapon, backing away slowly before she turned and started to run flat out, accidentally stepping "on" Banette as she fled. It seemed like she'd hardly gotten anywhere at all when she heard the sound of Ariados following after her. Tears were openly streaming down her face now and obscuring her vision but she didn't stop. "Help!" she cried, wishing desperately for someone to come and find her; to come and save her from this horrible nightmare. At that very moment in time she wished she'd never left home in the first place, as she wasn't even sure what would happen to her if Leroy actually caught her. "Somebody, please help me!" she screamed again. "Anybody!"

"There's no one out here!" came Leroy's voice from somewhere behind her and she cried out fearfully, stumbling against another shipping container. "Just give up already, Miharu."

She looked around frantically again, certain that he was going to jump out at her again at any moment now. All she could hear was the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears and despite the fact that she was running, she felt chilled to the bone. She hadn't noticed that Banette and Ariados had once again caught up to her as she started forward again, not until she turned and found herself face-to-face with the laughing Ghost-type. Giving another frightened scream she tried to run again, but she didn't get more than a few steps before Ariados let loose a String Shot, tangling the girl's legs and sending her sprawling to the ground. In the process, her head made hard contact against the lip of the pavement, both knocking her unconscious and leaving quite a nasty gash in the process.

Oak chuckled as they stepped through the main foyer. "Ah, yes, Beedrill. They are fiercely territorial, particularly when there are young Weedle and Kakuna about. Quite a protective and temperamental sort for certain." The older man prattled on as he led Kressen down a hallway and through a few rooms, and it quickly became apparent that tidiness was not one of Professor Oak's strong suits. Towers of books were balancing precariously against stacks of loose papers and various magazines and pamphlets, and though it appeared to look quite disorganized, it also gave the impression that Oak knew exactly where all the important things were located.

"Right this way, young man," Oak smiled as he pushed open a swinging door, and the two stepped into the main part of the laboratory. Various machines and gadgets littered the counters, many with blinking lights and dials showing different readings and figures. One could only guess what they were even for, but Oak didn't pay them any mind as he passed right by them. "So then, young trainer from Viridian! I can assume you're here for one reason! You're here for your first Pokemon, aren't you?" His grin was impossibly wide and it was easy to see that he truly loved getting new trainers started on their journeys. He'd already pressed a switch on the side of the counter, causing the silvery dome of one of an altar-like object in the middle to slide open with a hiss, revealing three glimmering Pokeballs. "Eh? Eh?" the professor was almost giddy with delight as he gestured to the spheres. "You can choose between Bulbasaur, the Grass-type, Charmander, the Fire-type, and Squirtle, the Water-type! Well, go ahead and pick one!"

=-=-=-=-=

"Twilight's special, like Fang!" Kasiya said in reply to Mike's questioning of the Umbreon's blue rings. "Wait. Not that kind of special, but you know what I mean." Meanwhile, the Umbreon's golden eyes went wide at the sight of the giant, metal snake smashing its tail against the ground. Twilight was sure anything crushed beneath the heavy appendage would be done for almost immediately, though the graceful Kirlia had managed to dodge, and quite elegantly at that before launching a counterattack. The Dark-type looked over his shoulder at his trainer, awaiting his first command. "It'd be my pleasure!" she grinned, pointing at the Psi Pokemon. "Get the Kadabra with your Faint Attack!" Kasiya called, and the Dark-type Eeveelution sprinted into action, disappearing for a split second only to reappear behind the Psi Pokemon. He threw himself into the Psychic-type, his body shrouded in darkness.

Maura and her Kadabra were a little more on the ball than the blonde girl and her Umbreon, her stoic smile cracking only a little as she studied her target. Miracle Eye, she thought-spoke to her Pokemon, sensing that the Umbreon's attack had been rather damaging even with the previous Reflect doing its job to block some of it. Having been hit from behind, the Kadabra hopped forward and spun around quickly, holding out his spoon at arm's length as he focused on the Umbreon. "Kadabarah!" he called, the star in the middle of his forehead suddenly shifting into a very creepy third eye. Twilight felt an almost painful chill wrack his body and he shuddered. Kasiya narrowed her eyes, having already picked up on the fact that the girl was telepathically giving commands to her Pokemon. That's totally unfair, she thought angrily, not caring if her thoughts were too loud or offensive to the mind-readers. She'd known the first move to be Reflect, but she had no idea what the second had been, which was what really bothered her, not the telepathy itself.

The old professor was so far living up to his expectations of being a knowledgeable older man. What some of his old teammates would call a nerd. Not that he minded listening to him prattle on about pokemon. In fact he was a tad jealous at how smart Professor Oak was in his field of study. The red head had been more athletically talented than academically. He rarely had anything over a B or C in certain subjects other than PE.

He nodded as the professor kept speaking and tried to navigate the messy home without knocking anything over with the heavy back pack. It was slow going since the older man had a entire house messier than Kressen's room. Now in the lab he walked even slower afraid to touch anything lest he break it. His younger self would have started pressing all the buttons as soon as he entered the room, but at sixteen he could refrain from touching. Just barely.

Stopping three meters in front of the professor and the poke-balls he blinked at him as the older man offered him some pokemon. "Errr sorry sir. I think you have the wrong idea. I already have three pokemon, one of them in fact a charmander. I don't need to get my starter, I was just hoping to get a pokedex before I go gallivanting off into the world and discover pokemon. If that's not too much to ask for."

Kressen mirrored the Professor's actions and faked a cough as well to disguise his laugh. It wasn't hard to see why Oak had thought he was here to get his starter, but it was funny all the same. Heart warming as well to see how excited he got over helping trainers begin their journey out into the world. Still grinning he listened to Oak speak on the uses of the pokedex and how much it would help him on his journey.

It was exactly why he had come to get the handy device. He took a hold of the small red device with a nod."Thank you sir. I really appreciate you giving me this...Does it come with a manual or something? I've never been great with technology and I'd rather not break it when I use it to check out Odin my Pawniard. The lil dude simply fell out of the sky and into my hands."

"Special like Powalski, not Beacon. Got it!" Mike looked over at the meddlesome Kadabra, who was somehow affecting Twilight with his attacks-something which the boy was positive shouldn't be happening. He also noticed that the Pokemon was attacking without its trainer verbally issuing commends. "Psychics." Mike growled, taking sudden offense to both the girl and Kadabra despite the fact that he used an identical strategy with Portabello. Besides, it was messing up Kasiya's Pokemon, and that simply would not fly. He ordered Titanium to flatten the telekinetic under his steel tail; the Pokemon, not the trainer. Reflect or not, that cat-thing was going down!

Titanium turned to face his new target, another set of Magical Leaves harmlessly bouncing off the side of his head. The Steelix swung out his tail, aiming to flick the pesky Kadabra against the wall.

Kilik recalled the Chimchar into its ball, as well as his Klink. On the off chance someone wanted to battle, no sense in freaking them out with a strange new Pokemon. He turned and started walking out of the cave with Cable by his side, running over the possibilities he had against Roark. He could very well go in there with guns ablazin' with Cable and Aggron, but where was the fun in that? Katie had mentioned he used Rock-types. Well, Grovyle was an easy choice and evolving Chimchar would be essential. He mulled over the rest of the Pokemon he had back home, but they were all much too strong to make the first Sinnoh gym an actual challenge. "I could use Sudowoodo?" he thought, scratching the back of his head as he walked. "She's not too high level is she?" Though she was quite the attention seeker and would more than likely make the battle more of a chore than anything else. "And Ludicolo is pretty up there as far as levels go..." he paused and looked up at Cable, as if the Electivire would be able to offer some form of insight. When none came, Kilik sighed. Relying on two Pokemon in a Gym Battle was probably a bad idea.

"And while Steel-types are good against Rock-types," he said to no one in particular, "Klink has a long way to go before he's ready to battle. And forget using Drifloon, Flying-types don't stand a chance. Maybe Roark will just do a two-on-two battle." He took out his PokeDex and started rolling through it, reading up on Monferno; they evolve relatively early and earn a Fighting-type move upon evolution. And it should be enough to handle Roark. "Mach Punch, huh? He'll be moving so fast, Roark won't be able to touch him!" The boy laughed heartily as he put the device back in his pocket. With all this spacing out and thinking, it wasn't long until he reached the Pokemon Center. He handed the Nurse his Pokemon and headed to the cafeteria, piling on sandwiches and slices of pizza on his plate.

The boy stuffed his face as always, leaning back on his chair to pat his stomach. "Ah, delicious!" It felt like it had been ages since he had last eaten. Across from him was the empty seat that Katie had been sitting in when they had gotten here. He began wondering how she was doing. Did she make it to where she wanted to go? She'd seemed rather reluctant to tell him exactly what she was aiming for, though it wasn't like he was very clear either. "Maybe..." he checked his watch. It was really late. "She's probably out like a light. I'll text her in the morning." He stood up and stretched. Exhaustion hit him like a ton of bricks and he headed to bed, curling up beneath the warm blanket.

Cable sat next to Kilik's bed, letting out a mighty yawn. He planted his fists on the ground and sat with his feet touching together. The yeti closed his eyes and began drifting off to sleep.

In his dreams, he could see himself fighting in a large stadium. It was just him and Kilik! He wasn't exactly sure where he was, but the roar of thousands of people was ringing in his ears. Before him was a collection of trainers he knew. That guy with Napalm! The blonde girl who used Vaporeon! Another Electivire, which he knew had to be Kord, judging by the orange haired girl beside him. When he felt Kilik touch his shoulder, he looked down and gave him a nod. This was it, right? He had to prove himself against all these trainers! There were a multitude more trainers behind them, each hidden in shadows. But with the two of them, there was nothing they couldn't accomplish!

Meanwhile, Kilik was having a much different dream. There was a lot of chaos, people screaming. Was this a dream about the beach party? No, Slateport was much...sandier. This place was much brighter; at least, it seemed so. There was a bright light in front of him, which seemed inviting. The screams said otherwise. He could hear a laugh too, a familiar one. Yet his dream was distorting the sound, making it impossible to pinpoint where or who it was coming from. Suddenly, the ground beneath him shook and pillars of lava and water began shooting up into the air. Time began to slow to an unbearable crawl and the space around him shifted. He shot up in a cold sweat, panting heavily. He put a hand on his forehead and groaned, gritting his teeth. It was just a bad dream but it felt much more ominous than that. He'd leave it in the back of his mind for now; Kilik looked over to see Cable still sleeping and the sun had not even risen yet. Plopping his head back down on the pillow, Kilik sighed and attempted to return to sleep.

The female psychic's eyes went wide when the boy changed his Steelix's target to her Kadabra. Teleport! she thought frantically, watching fearfully as the Iron Snake Pokemon's massive tail was heading dangerously toward her Kadabra. The Psychic-type made a fearful noise, its hands flying up as Titanium's tail obscured it from vision, and there was a slight thudding sound. When the Steelix's tail moved, there was no sign of the Kadabra anywhere, though a second or so later it reappeared but not before flying back a good distance into the far wall. Evidently, the Reflect hadn't done a thing for it. "Oh, my," was all she could say as she recalled the Psi Pokemon, frowning slightly, but only for a quick moment as it changed to a smile. She wasn't so sure that Tate and Liza could handle these two trainers, but regardless it would be fun to watch as she sent out her second Pokemon, an odd-looking bird - a Xatu. Use Confuse Ray on the Steelix, she directed, causing the Mystic Pokemon to raise its wings and emit an odd pattern of lights.

Twilight, meanwhile, continued to try and shake off the eerie feeling. He couldn't explain it, but he suddenly felt very, very vulnerable. He growled, ears flattened against his head as he waited for his command. "Hit the Kirlia with Faint Attack!" Kasiya called, feeling a rush of excitement as their first opponent was down. They were one step closer to claiming their... heart-shaped, whatever it was badge, and she grinned, watching intently as Twilight vanished in a wisp of darkness, reappearing behind the Kirlia a moment later before lashing out with a sucker punch.

=-=-=-=-=

"A manual?" Oak repeated, looking a tad confused. "Eh, well, not really. There should be a help section built right in. Just press the white button - no, not that one - yes, that one, right there! There, it has a how-to and a whole user guide. Just, don't forget to charge the battery now and then and you should be all set." In order to make Kressen feel a little more prepared, he ran through the basic functions, prattling on and on and only managing to get off topic only a few times.

"Of course, if you have any other concerns, you can call me at any time, as well. And that goes for just about anything else you can think of, not just PokeDex-related questions." At that point, he looked expectantly at the tall redhead, as though expecting him to ask a question right then and there.