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Vic Angelo~

Vic and Lizzy had been training with Shuckle for quite some time and there was still no sign of Millie. She might have run away out of embarrassment. Although she seemed like she wanted to come along and help with the training. Perhaps that was just an act though.
"Are you not hungry?" Vic asked Lizzy.
"I had my sandwiches. Those are yours, silly," Lizzy replied.
Vic supposed he must have been daydreaming again, but he was sure he'd already eaten his sandwiches. He'd probably just taken too many sandwiches out of the lunch box. His mind wasn't really in the right place today, it seemed.
"Well, shall we get Gligar out of his pokéball and see just how troublesome he is?"
"Yes. I want to meet him," Lizzy replied.
Vic stood up and brushed the crumbs off his lap, then walked a little away from the picnic blanket and pulled out Gligar's pokéball. "Okay. Out you come, Gligar."
Flash. The pokéball popped open and the pokémon from inside came out, gliding on the breeze for a moment before settling on the ground. "Gli~!"
Vic recoiled a little, as the pokémon stuck its tongue out at him and blew a raspberry.
"Huh... hi there, Gligar. Are you okay?"
The pokémon raised its right claw so that its cape-like wing shielded its body and only its piercing eyes were visible. It leered at Vic. Then in a split second it jumped forwards. It spread its wings, then it blew another raspberry.
Vic leaned back a little, although the display wasn't as nasty as he'd imagined it might be. "Is that a no?"
"Gligar gli~" the pokémon scowled.
"Okay. I think it was a no. But, you know, I'm your trainer now. So, maybe we can start over. I'm going to be travelling around with Lizzy - that's Lizzy, my sister, and I'm Vic - and I want your help battling trainers and taking on gyms, so we can earn money and pay for food and things."
Gligar whipped its wings open again and blew another raspberry, before wrapping itself up again. It seemed like it wanted to send out some sort of Dracula vibe, but the long, pink tongue seriously detracted from the rest of the image.
"Do you even know any bite moves?" Vic asked, hand to his chin.
"Gli?"
"Hmm. Maybe you should show me what you've got. Shuckle, come on out," Vic said, throwing a second pokéball.
Shuckle appeared from his pokéball and landed on the ground with a wobble. His wormy tendrils didn't come out of his shell. He'd probably expected this routine--Dad used to do the same whenever he caught new a pokémon.
Vic looked to Gligar. "Go ahead. I'll see if you've got what it takes."
"Gli?" Gligar asked, whipping his claws down. "Gligar gligar gli!?"
Vic feigned a yawn. "Come on. Or maybe you're no good. Maybe I can find better."
"Gligar gli~!" the pokémon snapped. He jumped, glided forwards and smashed into Shuckle, doing barely any damage. Not that it was a bad attack--Shuckle just had an amazing defence.
"Aerial ace. Okay. Anything better than that?" Vic asked.
Gligar scowled at Vic, then at Shuckle. Two light blue rings formed around his body, which proceeded to turn into rocks. It looked like stone edge. It'd do nothing against Shuckle, but it was a pretty powerful attack. The pokémon cried as it fired the stones at Shuckle's shell. "Gligar gli~"
"Hmm," Vic said, purposely sounding unimpressed. "Nothing special, really."
"Gli!?" Gligar snapped. He frowned furiously, then leaped up and tipped his body vertical, so that his head faced the ground.
"Ah..." Vic smiled. It was dig--Gligar fell at the ground and clawed away at the earth, disappearing under the surface in an instant. He then surfaced, right beneath Shuckle, knocking him up into the air.
"Gligar gli!" Gligar cheered for himself. Then Shuckle landed on his head with a clonk.
"Nice," Vic chuckled. He walked over to the two pokémon, as Shuckle poked his head out of one of the holes in his shell to see what the damage was. "Gligar?"
"Gli?" the pokémon asked, slowly coming around. The moment he saw Vic he jumped up and straight into his Dracula routine again. "Gliga~ar~!"
"I think you're perfect," Vic said. "I think I can help you, and I know you can help me. So what do you say? Team?"
Gligar scowled at Vic. Then he turned away. "Gli."

Vic Angelo~

"What's the deal? What did you do?" Millie complained.
"Shuckle, defence curl then roll out," Vic ordered. Unlike someone he could name, he was focussed on every battle he was in, from start to finish.
"Shuh!" Shuckle cried. He pulled all his tendrils in, then used them to start pushing himself along into a roll.
"Nnnh! Misdreavus, dodge it!" Millie ordered. Her pokémon easily moved aside of the rolling shell, but Shuckle just turned about and headed back, picking up speed all the while. Millie snarled, "dodge it again!"
Misdreavus focused on Shuckle, waiting for the perfect moment to move, but just as she made her decision the toxic she'd been sprayed with painfully grabbed her attention. Shuckle came a second later, smashing into the ghost pokémon, then rolling onwards, faster and faster.
"Misdreavus, you can do it! Power gem!"
"Misdreavus!" the pokémon cried. Vic knew that the move would be effective against Shuckle, but he had full confidence in his pokémon's ability to take it.
"Keep it up, Shuckle, you're doing great."
"Come on Misdreavus, do it!"
"Mis~dreav~ uh!"
"The toxic's doing its job," Vic muttered to himself. "One more hit and she'll go down."
As he was speaking Shuckle hit again, and Misdreavus was knocked to the ground.
"Bah! Return, Misdreavus. Go Buizel!" Millie ordered. She returned the former with her right hand and sent out the latter with her left.
"Bui~ bui~ bui~!" the water pokémon called.
"Let's see what you can do! Aqua jet!" Millie yelled.
Vic found himself shaking his head. He didn't see the good in using a physical move against a pokémon on its fourth turn of rollout.
"Bui!" the water pokémon cried. It threw its arms up and was instantaneously covered with water. It jumped up then, and powered more water from its feet, jetting itself through the air and towards Shuckle.
"Now ice beam!" Millie shouted.
Vic frowned. He could only watch as Buizel fired an ice beam while using aqua jet, turning all of the water around it into ice which fired directly at Shuckle.
"Ha!" Millie screamed with glee. But as the two pokémon crashed into each other, only one of the defences was going to shatter; the ice broke into a thousand pieces and Buizel crashed to the ground. Shuckle carried on rolling, as if nothing had got in his way.

Vic Angelo~

"What!?" Millie laughed. "Trapinch can't use--"
"Traaaaaa~" Trapinch cried, her whole body vibrating. Then hundreds of orbs of green light drifted out of Barboach and into Trapinch, healing the damage that was just caused by icy wind.
"No! Barboach! Trapinch you little punk, how did you do that?" Millie barked. She pulled out what Vic presumed was a pokédex and started tapping buttons.
"Trapinch have been known to learn giga drain. Thus far all reported cases have come from the Sinnoh region."
"Sinnoh? You mean you've known giga drain since I caught you in Sinnoh and you never told me!?" Millie growled.
"You said you hadn't been to Sinnoh," Vic said.
"I said no such thing! I went for a week with my parents, before setting off for Johto. Caught Trapinch then. But I never knew it had learned giga drain," Millie complained.
"Traaaaaa~" Trapinch said. It seemed quite vacant, almost like a robot. It certainly didn't show any emotion. It just stared at nothingness.
"Bah! I'll teach you. Sneasel, poison jab!" Millie ordered. She left Barboach fainted on the field, as well as Buizel, and sent out her last pokémon.
"Wait," Vic shouted. It looked to him like Trapinch was burned. But Sneasel didn't listen to him.
"Sneasel!" it cried. Then, smash. Its claw knocked Trapinch back.
Vic recalled her to her pokéball. "You did good, Trapinch. I actually feel sorry for you, being lumbered with Millie."
"Come on, Vicky boy! Last pokémon," Millie said.
Vic looked over to Gligar, who he'd have to send in next. Looked like he was ready for it--he bounced up and down and pumped his claws through the air like a boxer throwing punches. But Sneasel was an ice type, and gligars were super weak against ice moves. All Millie would have to do was unleash an avalanche. "Gligar, this'll be tough. Try your best, though."
"Gligar gli~" the pokémon replied. He jumped up then, and swooped onto the field.
"Sneasel, brick break!" Millie ordered.
Vic raised an eyebrow. Fighting type moves barely did anything to gligars--they were too nimble. Millie must have known that if she'd been through Johto. "Gligar, cross poison."
"Gli~!" Gligar cried. He took the hit from Sneasel and countered by lashing his claws down in turn.
"Now dark pulse!" Millie ordered.
Sneasel backed off and let out a black wave of energy which broke against Gligar's body. "Sneasel sneasel!"
"Gligar, close in and give it another cross chop!" Vic ordered.
Gligar jumped up and swooped forwards, slashing his claws across Sneasel's torso in the blink of an eye.
"Sneasel, x-scissor!" Millie shouted.
Vic had to keep from calling out to her 'bug attacks are just as bad as fighting against a gligar' but he bit his tongue. If she won, she'd gloat. She deserved another loss. Vic focussed on his own strategy; "Gligar, metal claw!"
"Gli~gaaaaar!" Gligar called. Its claws shone brightly and lashed down against Sneasel, knocking to the ground. And there Sneasel stayed, alongside Buizel and Barboach. With victory confirmed Gligar moved his wing across his face, back into mysterio mode--complete with raspberry. "Gligar gli~"

Vic Angelo~

"I said I have nearly sixteen," Millie scoffed.
"Maybe you haven't got any," Vic said. "That'd make us even."
"You don't have any badges!?" Millie laughed. "But you beat me and I've got loads. How's that even possible?"
"I haven't got any badges because I've never challenged a gym. You go around three regions and you're bound to luck out at a couple of gyms," Vic replied.
"'Luck out'? See here, boyo, I have thirteen legitimate badges," Millie growled. She thrust a big badge case into Vic's face to show off what she'd won. "I got the Mind Badge from Tate and Liza. I got the Feather Badge from Winona and the Heat Badge from Flannery. Then I got the Knuckle Badge and the Stone Badge from Brawley and Roxanne and in Johto I got the Zepher Badge from Faulkner, the Hive Badge from Bugsy, the Fog Badge from Morty, the Storm Badge from Chuck, Mineral Badge from Jasmine and the Glacier and Rising Badges from some old man and this girl Clair."
"So you failed at the Mauville Gym, the Petalburg Gym and the Sootopolis Gym in Hoenn and didn't get the Plain Badge from Whitney in Goldenrod," Vic replied.
"That girl and her stupid miltank. I could throttle her. She definitely cheated," Millie argued. Seemed like that was her excuse every time she lost. She couldn't admit when she'd been the lesser trainer. That must have stemmed from something. Perhaps she'd been bullied as a child.
"Goodbye, Millie," Vic said.
"Goodbye nothing. I bet you I can get every Kanto gym badge before you can."
"You probably could," Vic agreed. "I've never taken on a gym before, so I've no experience in it. Plus you've already got one badge, and on top of that, I've only got three pokémon in the world. You've got a whole host of them to choose from."
"Fine. You can have my trapinch," Millie said.
"What?" Vic blurted. He pulled the pokéball from his pocket, where he'd automatically put it upon recalling the pokémon. According to all the books Vic had read, trapinch were pretty rare in Kanto. And this one was a good little fighter. "What about your extra badge?"
"We can go straight to Surge's gym now. If you win, we're even. If you lose, you lose, and you'll just have to deal with it."
Vic sighed. He was going to take on the gyms anyway, and he did want to put Millie in her place, and he wouldn't mind having a trapinch in his team. He grunted. "Sure. Okay, let's do it."
"Ace. So let's go to the pokémon centre," Millie said. She turned about and headed off, but Vic didn't follow. Firstly, he still had to pack away some things, and secondly, Lizzy wasn't back yet. Millie looked back. "Are you coming?"
"Once I've found my sister," Vic said. "You go on ahead."
"No chance. You'd chicken out and run away," Millie laughed. "I'm not letting you out of my sight!"

Vic Angelo~

Vic slowed down and ducked as he walked up the stairs in the entranceway of the hut at the end of the route. The rain seemed to be getting heavier, and both he and Lizzy were already drenched, so he didn't think they'd be leaving the hut again for a long time.
"Phew. Shelter," Vic said.
"I'm so wet!" Lizzy complained, as Vic let her down from his back. She stomped around in the empty room with her squelching shoes and socks making all sorts of strange sounds.
"It sounds like your shoes are waterlogged. Good job we've got some spare socks," Vic replied. He looked around but there wasn't much in the building. There were four plants, one in each corner, and there was a sort of counter, which Vic would expect a guard to be stood behind. He couldn't see anyone, though. Maybe they were laid down. He walked over to the counter and leaned over it, to see the floor on the other side.
"Anybody there?"
"Nope," Vic shook his head. "Maybe they're upstairs?"
There was a spiral stairwell on the opposite side of the room. That would be where the binoculars were. This was a viewing station, after all.
"Can we go up?" Lizzy asked.
Vic didn't see a problem with it, so he nodded his head. He took his rucksack off his back and while Lizzy took to the stairs, he rested against the counter.
Too bad there wasn't a fire or any radiators around. Maybe the guard had gone home because it was so wet. That'd be some guard.
"Vic?" Lizzy called down the stairs.
Vic was still tired from carrying her and running pretty much the full length of the route. He stayed where he was and just called out. "Yeah?"
"There's a man here, sleeping," Lizzy shouted.
So maybe you shouldn't be shouting, Vic thought. He sighed out, then. "Okay, I'm on my way."
"I think he's waking up," Lizzy whispered. Although, her idea of whispering wasn't the same as everyone else's. The guy was probably waking up. Vic lengthened his strides, then took the steps two at a time, using the hand rail to pull, as well as his legs to push himself up the stairway.
The man was laid on his side, facing the wall, on the far side of the room. As Vic suspected, there were six sets of binoculars, fixed to stands, two at each of the huge windows. They were the sort you'd find at a seaside resort, or at the top of a landmark skyscraper. This building was neither of those, though. Vic focused on the sleeping guy again. "Doesn't look like the guard to me."
"Me either," Lizzy shook her head. "Should I poke him?"
"No," Vic blurted. But then he thought about it. The guy looked like a trainer--he had pokéballs on his belt. He probably wouldn't mind being woken by a sweet little girl. "Oh, alright then. Go ahead."
Lizzy skipped over to the guy and tugged on his shirt. "Hey Mister. Are you okay?"
"Hmnh," the trainer responded, still asleep.
Lizzy scrunched up her face a bit. Then she nudged the guy with her shoe. "Oi. Get up."

Vic Angelo~

"What do you say, Lizzy? You want to join Ever in the hunt for this pokémon?" Vic asked.
Lizzy shook her head. "He said it's a monster, not a pokémon."
"There's no such thing as monsters. It must be a pokémon," Vic replied. "Right, Ever?"
"Oh yeah, it's totally a pokémon, kid," Ever agreed. He returned his houndoom and picked up his bag, which he was using as a pillow.
"But what if it is a monster?" Lizzy asked. Seemed like she didn't really want to go. Vic had got himself quite excited about it, too. Well, excited for him--he'd stopped hunching for the minute, at least.
"Lizzy, wasn't it? Why don't you stay here with my jigglypuff? Your bro' and I can go deal with the monster. You're a trainer right?" Ever asked.
"Mm," Vic nodded. "Just got the Thunder Badge from Lieutenant Surge. I could give you a hand. If that's okay, Lizzy?"
Lizzy was bouncing around, clapping her hands and singing, "jigglypuff! Jigglypuff!"
"Dude, I think that's a yes," Ever laughed. "Jigglypuff, take the stage!"
The pokémon appeared from its pokéball and struck a pose. "Jiggly!"
"Aww~" Lizzy cooed. "It's the cutest thing ever!"
"Yeah, I know," Ever said. He probably took that wrong. But, no matter.
"Shall we go now, or do you think it'd be better to wait until after the rain stops?" Vic asked. He didn't think Ever's Houndoom would like the rain, but it might not pass over for hours, or maybe even days. Investing that much time into solving one mystery was too much. Better to get to Fuchsia and get another badge. They'll have had money transferred to their account from the Vermilion gym win, but it wouldn't last them forever. Second badge payments aren't that much, either. It wouldn't be 'til they got their third badge that they'd be able to relax a little.
"I think we should check it out now. For all we know it's caused the rain using a rain dance attack," Ever replied.
Vic hadn't thought of that, but maybe he was right. Lots of psychic-types can learn rain dance. "You're right. Okay, I'm ready when you are."
"Excellent. Let's get this show on the road," Ever said.
"Sure. Lizzy, you take care of Ever's Jigglypuff, okay?" Vic asked.
"I will!" Lizzy replied. "See you soon~"

Vic led the way down the stairs, where Ever shed some more light on the pokémon they were looking for.
"It's a wily thing. Steals all kinds of things and scares everyone off. Far as I've learned, no-one's ever seen it, but the way it makes things float around is enough to give anyone the heebie-jeebies. There's no way it's not a psychic type, so my houndoom should be able to take care of it no problems. You got any dark types?"
"Um, no. Shuckle, Gligar, Trapinch and Gastly," Vic replied. "Gastly probably won't be very helpful, but hopefully the others will be. Shuckle shouldn't have any problems--he can stand up against anything."
"Well we'll see about that soon enough," Ever said. He pushed open the door onto route twelve and headed out into the rain.