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Pushing aside the blades of long grass, Kiera found a Zigzagoon this time. She whipped out her PokeDex for its information - A Pokémon with abundant curiosity. It shows an interest in everything, so it always zigs and zags. "Oh my gosh, it's even cuter than the Bidoof! But it's a normal type. Vesy, use your Leer attack first this time!"

The Zigzagoon almost ran away, and instead came back. But then it looked like it was running away again, then tackled Cyndaquil! Kiera was very confused. This must have been why it said it always zigs and zags. "Don't get confused, Vesuvius! It runs zig-zaggy. Tackle it next time it turns!"

It worked great! Zigzagoon tumbled backwards and got up to Tackle Cyndaquil again, but this time they were ready. Kiera grinned and with one more Tackle the pokemon was knocked out. "Doing okay Vesy? Want to go find another one?" The Cyndaquil nodded and smiled back.

It was a tough fight and getting really close. Both pokemon were getting tired, but Kiera believed in her Cyndaquil. He already was really tough for a baby pokemon just like she thought. "Don't give up, Vesy! Just a little longer, Tackle it again and ..." That had to be enough. The Poochyena was panting, sore and dirty from the rough battle. Cyndaquil was too. Kiera threw the PokeBall at Poochyena and ...

And she caught it! "YES! You did GREAT VESY!" Both of them laughed and cheered and Kiera picked up the new PokeBall to let out the Poochyena. "Okay, I'll call you... Zeus. Lets go back to the PokeCenter to heal before we look for any more pokemon. You two did a really good job. Welcome to the group, Zeus!" With her two new pokemon with her Kiera ran back towards Blyse City so they could go out again soon and train some more.

In the PokeCenter Kiera gave her two PokeBalls to Nurse Joy. "So Zeus has the ability...Quick Feet. Never heard of that before. And you're level four, that's close to Vesuvius so that's even better. No wonder you gave us such a hard time!"

Zeus looked up at Kiera and whined. He wanted to fight the psychic type because he was Dark but Kiera had already thrown the PokeBall. She wished she could have weakened the Abra so she had a better chance of catching it. Abra already looked ready to Teleport so she only had one chance at this... "YES we did it again. I am SO lucky that worked."

The PokeBall stopped wiggling and with a ping Kiera knew she had captured the cute little Abra. "For your name, um ..." This one was a little harder and she let Abra out of his ball so she could look closer at him. "How about Hocus?" The Abra shook his head and shrugged. "Oh okay, for now you can be Hocus but I'll think up a better name for you, okay?" Abra nodded this time. Now Kiera had three pokemon, but unless she found Eevee there really wasn't anything else she wanted here. "Should we go look on another route?" Her pokemon all cheered. "I wish Abra knew an attack though. Hocus, you'll only watch for now, okay?"

Nolan had to keep himself from reaching for his pokeballs, because it was starting to make him twitch having the five pokemon following all at once. They sorely had him outnumbered ... but he'd be fine, right? It's just that Nolan would feel a lot safer if he could get Snivy back into her ball, but at the same time, he knew that would be unfair. The Grass Snake was just trying to help, right? Nolan was way too jumpy to relax now, and if it didn't look entirely silly, he would have gotten Dosu again to hold and carry around like a security blanket.

Or more like a stuffed teddy bear? Except, with a fish. Nolan sighed, trying to keep a perky step to his walk, because he wasn't even too sure where he was going either. And he didn't need his pokemon to know that. And going off the path seemed like a really bad idea. It was hard enough keeping an eye on all of his pokemon, but if they got into the tall grass there was no telling what trouble they could get into. He could cut down the numbers easily, however, playing favorites could be dangerous, so Nolan still didn't recall any of them.
"Okay, let's get things organized here. Everyone get a buddy and we're going to stay with our buddy, alright? And ..."

Nolan trailed off when he heard someone battling ahead. Turning around while his pokemon were trying to figure out how to pair up with an odd number, he noticed that the other trainer had an Abra. Of course he recognized the Psychic type, he made trips into Saffron City before and gone to see the gym there. It just seemed weird that Abra were out here too, but then so were Rattata and Pidgey, even if those were common.
"Oh hey, I didn't know those were around here. How did you catch your Abra?"

(( I don't think they are allowed to. It's okay, I don't really want to catch an Abra. There's other pokemon I want and I'm starting to run out of pokeballs! ))



"Uh ..." Nolan was quiet for a moment, since he didn't really expect Kiera to suddenly start looking for an Abra he could call his own. Laughing nervously, he put his hands out in front of him, and quickly tried to clear things up.
"No, no, it's okay, really. I have too many pokemon already. Err, I mean I have all six right now, so it's okay. These guys are enough for me."

Being talked about in such a way got Snivy to look over at the two trainers critically, because it almost, almost sounded like an insult the way Nolan phrased it. But she also was looking at the pokemon that Kiera had. Just like that, the Grass Snake decided that none of them looked tough enough to fight and stuck her nose into the air. Valor and Honor, the duo of Shinx that Nolan had were much more friendly. It seemed that Valor's exuberant attitude was rubbing off a little bit on his 'brother' Shinx, since both of them bounded over to greet Kiera's pokemon with happy faces. Nincada and Taillow were just a little bit aloof, although, they were mostly wary of the fire pokemon.

Worry about his Shinxes, Nolan's thoughts stumbled again, but he got talking soon enough so it wasn't too awkward, "Right, my name is Nolan. It's very nice to meet you, Kiera. Uh, Nolan Grey and I'm from Lavender Town, so I've never been in this region before. I like it so far, but then- " Starting again, he continued, "It's really pretty! The parts I've seen so far, but I've only been around Blyse and saw a little of Route 2."

"A-a battle?"
Not wanting to be rude, Nolan accepted the handful of treats with his thanks, and doled one each out to his pokemon too. Snivy reached way, way up for hers on the tips of her toes, looking desperate for a second, seeming to like sweets even more than the others. Nolan pretended not to notice how much Snivy wanted the treat, and instead paid more attention as Nincada tentatively tasted the gift. Nolan didn't know if the Trainee pokemon liked it or not, but it vanished into Nincada's mouth. That must have been a yes.

But this all meant he never got one for his Magikarp since Dosu was still in his repeat ball, and wasn't counted in the bunch. But err, what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Nolan didn't really want to ask for more when Kiera was already being so nice by sharing with him. Although, the two Shinx were really warming up to her quickly, hoping to get more treats just like her levitating Abra. Nolan watched carefully to make sure they didn't make nuisances of themselves by begging.

But a battle? Didn't he just say to himself that it probably was time for him to start to learn how to fight other trainers? Nolan did hate the idea of his pokemon getting hurt, but again, he recalled images of the Dragonite and the dragon's trainer. If he was going to get there someday, Nolan would have to do everything he could. Hesitating at first, he slowly nodded.
"I'll ... I'll use my lower level pokemon to make it more fair. They need the practice more anyway. Um, Taillow you first."

Nolan winced right when he made his choice, but surprisingly the Tiny Bird pokemon hopped right up to get ready. Snivy really must have done a number on Taillow while he was asleep, or maybe his trick earlier really did get straight through to the Taillow. Either way, Nolan felt a little glow of pride. Taillow was a fine looking pokemon.
"Ready when you are. You can make the first move."

Nolan must not have been ready, because the Bite pokemon howled and was already getting ready to Tackle Taillow! But that howl had been chilling. Taillow though? Didn't seem to bother the bird, but made her more determined to fight, and he could swear he saw a smile. Maybe that's how the ability Guts helped, except that still didn't sound right. Nolan took heart by his pokemon's bravery, and he gave her a move to make before he even really thought about it,
"Fly over that Tackle and give it a peck, Taillow!"

Taillow ... Twillow ... Nolan was still wondering if that slip of the tongue before would make a good nickname. However, he sure wouldn't forget how hard Taillow could peck, since his head STILL hurt a little from when she tried to drive him out of his tree. The Tiny Bird was certainly just as quick as she was before, taking off the ground with one flap and darting over Zeus's head before diving down to peck his back.