Pokemon RP Edition: Sinnoh Version

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

OOC: Mild auto at Katie's request. (glomps her). Also, I claim Page 2. ^^

"Actually, I was headed there" Erin smiled and pulled out her Satellite-tracking Map Device and tapped it, reading the map for a moment, half-heartedly expecting it to suddenly break down and show her a map of the planet Zebes or something similar - and smiling when it acted just the way it was supposed to be. Good. Deities knew she's had it with electronics crapping out on her. She memorized the directions, and folded the device back to her pocket.

"It's actually not too far from here, if this thing knows what it's talking about." the girl nodded "Feel free to follow."

~*~

Moments later, the two trainers walked into the PokéMon center.

"From here on, I'm pretty sure that you can handle things." Erin smirked a little "Now, time to get Ki patched up. Just in case the welcoming committee did manage to scratch him a little."

And with that she turned to the main counter, and mildly tapped the bell to summon the local Nurse Joy. She sighed a little, thinking of the amount of cheerful bubbly happiness she was going to have to deal with soon - Somewhere deep in her mind she suspected that all Nurse Joys were mindless clones bred in tanks full of carbonated, sugar-laced, pink embryonic fluid, infused with medical knowledge, and taught that they are all vaguely related so they'll never suspect it. She dismissed the notion as being too silly for its own good.

But a part of her has always wondered.

"Here we go again..." she murmured as she removed Kihunter's ball from her belt and watched the pink-haired Nurse head for the reception desk. She braced herself for sugar poisoning.

"Welcome to the Sandgem PokéMon Center!" the nurse chirped in a voice so sweet it made Erin wince "May I help you?"
"Yes, you may." Erin replied dryly, handing the nurse the PokéBall "I have a PokéMon that requires healing. It may not be anything particularly major, but I'd like him to be in tip-top shape for the road ahead."
"Oh, you're traveling onward from Sandgem?" the nurse chirped again, happiness oozing from her every pore  "Are you, perhaps, taking the Gym challenge?"
"Possibly. The nearest gym is in Oreburgh, right?"
"Yup!" the nurse replied, an eternal smile plastered on her face. Erin suppressed an urge to let Ki out and have him surgically remove that smile (Maybe it's the only thing that kept her face from falling off, after all). "Not that far from here - You'll have to head through Jubilife, but I'm sure you already know that. Well, I'd best get to work!"

The Nurse took the PokéBall away and waltzed off with it to the examination/cell restoration machines at the back room. Erin sighed to herself, lightly scritching at a crease on the second PokéBall on her belt.

"Ye gods, X, the Joys are even more obnoxious here than usual..." she murmured "... Honestly. Things the proximity to major research labs does to people."

[Linkachu]

"We're here!" Dizzy cheered as he raced through the sliding doors of the Pokemon Center. He paused on the welcome mat to gaze around the lobby area. It was a beautiful sight indeed. Erin spoke up then, which he regarded with a nod and gleeful, "Thanks again!", then looked down to Miles. "Shall we?"

"Bui!" the Water-type replied and followed the boy deeper inside - which was about two steps. Dizzy had halted to stare curiously at the black-haired individual sitting on a nearby sofa.

"Hmm… Why do I get the feeling I've met him before?" the orange-haired teen murmured to himself, taking a moment to ponder this.

"Zel..." Miles frowned and waited patiently for the boy to clue in.

A minute ticked by.

"Oh! He's that guy from Professor Rowan's lab! Hah!" Dizzy laughed triumphantly. The Buizel merely rolled his eyes and grunted. Dizzy shot him a look, "You're mocking me again, aren't you? Meh, whatever. I've got a nurse waiting!" Erin had just stepped away from the front counter, giving Dizzy a clear path to skip up to the desk and cry, "HELLOOOOO, NURSE!"

"And hello to you, too!" the pink haired lady replied brightly. "How can I help you today?"

"Ahem..." Dizzy cleared his throat and wiped the smirk off his face before continuing, "I need my new Turtwig healed, if that's not too much trouble..."

"Trouble? It's no trouble at all! The Pokemon Center is at your service free of charge!" the nurse chuckled cheerfully, her eyes gleaming with joy. She almost seemed too happy... good drugs maybe?

"Great!" Dizzy replied and pulled the Turtwig's PokeBall off his belt, handing it to the woman and thanking her.

"What about your Buizel there?" she curiously peered over the edge of the desk to smile down at the Pokemon. Miles physically winced at the deranged look in her eyes.

"Him? Nah, he's cool! A good rest on the couch will be enough," the teen replied.

"Buiii..." Miles nodded and slowly inched away from the counter.

"Alrighty! It'll just be a short wait while your Turtwig is re-energized. Feel free to take a seat and relax!"

"Will do!" Dizzy laughed, turning away from the woman and giving the Buizel a soft nudge with his foot. "Stop staring at the poor woman and c'mon!"

"Bui!" Miles yelped as if knocked out of a stupor and followed the boy across the room.

While there were numerous empty chairs and couches to choose from, Dizzy absentmindedly chose to sit down on the same sofa as the black haired male. Miles hopped up to sit on the cushion beside him, settling back and closing his eyes. While he hadn't really been injured from the battle, he was a bit worn out from traveling in general.

"So... now we just sit and relax," Dizzy smiled to himself. He gazed around the room at all it had to offer (it was pretty well empty of people), then admired the design. Then stared at the mud on his shoes. Then twiddled his thumbs... His smile was quickly drooping into a frown. After such an active afternoon he just couldn't seem to settle. The silence was killing him!

Finally the orange-haired male looked across the sofa to the slightly older male, who appeared somewhat lost in thought. Where was it again that he said he was from? And what was that odd-looking PokeBall he was fumbling with in his hands...?

"Err... Hey there!" Dizzy finally piped up and gave a weak wave.

[Sem]

Soren was deep in thought, he looked as if he was staring at the ball in his hands, but it had in fact been blurred away, images in his mind more vivid than the actual world around him.  He thought of nothing particular, just perhaps where he'd go next, or if he'd get something to eat.  He heard a voice and a wave of something in the corner of his eye.  "Huh?  What?" he jerked looking at the orange haired boy. 

The Premier Ball dropped from his hands and hit the holy-white tile, cracking open and releasing white energy even more pure than the tile.  The energy took form and faded, leaving behind a peculiar creature.  Pink and blue in color, comprised of many hard-edged shapes; it looked like something out of an early 3D gaming system.  It beeped happily and twitched about in the air.  Soren growled, "No, not in here." he threatened, glaring.  The creature beeped tauntingly in response and zoomed away, off towards the nearest piece of technology.  Soren was up and faster no sooner than the creature had began turning around to fly away.  The boy gave chase after his misbehaved Pokémon, ball in hand.  Soren shouted, "Return!" a red beam shot out of the ball, barely missing the Porygon, it hit a wall and dissipated.  He tried again a couple more times, missing both.  Porygon raced towards one of the PC units at the back of the room; Soren too close for Porygon to enter the machine, it changed direction in the last second, Soren skidded on the floor, sneakers streaking across the tile, making that awful noise, he just barely avoided running headlong into the computer.  Porygon made a series of gleeful beeps, sounding like giggling.  Soren tried again to return the creature, failing once more. 

Porygon toppled a plant in front of Soren, the teen leaped up and onto the counter, sliding across it, knocking the little bell off.  Nurse Joy had just returned with his other two Pokémon, she stared in shock as Soren snatched up the Dive Ball as he slid by and onto the floor.  "Starmie!  Psychic!" he ordered as the threw the ball, it split open midair and released a purple, star-shaped creature with a large, red gem in the center of its body.  Immediately following its master's command, it sighed as it was surrounded in a thin aura of blue energy, the gem glowed with the same energy, and soon Porygon was surrounded by the psychic power as well, stopping it dead in its tracks.  Soren sighed, "Return..." he gasped, raising his arm so the beam could get to the data-Pokémon, it was enveloped by the red beam and sucked back into the ball.  He gripped the ball firmly, "Thank you Starmie." he said as he returned the Water-type to its ball as well.

Standing erect, Soren brushed some hair out of his face and told the nurse. "Sorry about that." trying his best to sound apologetic.  He walked over and grabbed the other ball that belong to him. "Thank you." he said, bending down to return the bell to its rightful position on the counter.  He bowed and then returned to his seat.  "Hey." he said to the boy, responding to the boy's hello, even though it had occurred minutes earlier.  "Sorry about that, Porygon's a bit... hard to control."

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

All eyes in the center, perhaps, were turned at the source of the disturbance - It was clear that these folks of Sinnoh weren't used to such commotions in their town, especially not in their PokéMon center. Erin gazed at the trainers at random - a few of them seemed shocked, a few were in awe of what looked like a cool display of PokéMon they have never seen before, and a small few (older locals, she could tell), were shooting freezing, deathly glares to the boy - the sort of glares that one would get from the cranky old neighbor for 'disturbing the peace'. She wondered, for a second, how many of them were likely to burst into a rant about the young whippersnappers of today and their lack of control over their PokéMon, and how people were finer trainers who could command respect in their day.

In the stunned silence that overtook the PokéMon center at the wake of the mild chaos formed due to the Porygon's outburst, the boy's apology to Nurse Joy and his casual reply to Dizzy's greeting seemed to slice through the standing air like a knife.

"I think it is safe to assume that you have a wonderful knack for stating the obvious." Erin raised an eyebrow in reply to the boy's comment about Porygon being hard to control. Already, attendants were all over the place, silently re-adjusting equipment and righting toppled plants, as the conversations and hummed murmurs of the trainers slowly filled the air again.

She then turned away from the boy and walked to the counter to pick up Kihunter's PokéBall - he was also fully restored ("Not that there was much to restore." she thought bemusedly) and nodded at Nurse Joy, who returned to her work. She chuckled softly as she returned the PokéBall to her belt.

"Hyperactive Porygons." she murmured to herself as she turned to leave the center. "Now I know I've seen everything."

[Linkachu]

"Hey, stuff happens! Nobody got hurt, so it's all good," Dizzy grinned brightly from Erin to the other male as the girl turned to walk away. He'd highly enjoyed the show Porygon and the guy had put on - especially when he slid across the counter and grabbed Starmie's PokeBall! - and had just finished listening to the 'Dex enteries of both new Pokemon. He'd never seen either before in real life and was highly intrigued by Porygon in particular.  It'd been the first successful artificially made Pokemon... How cool was that?! "Hey, Miles! Did you see how cool that Pokemon was?" Dizzy exclaimed brightly and looked to his companion.

The Buizel gave a sleepy grunt and cracked open an eye lid. "Buiii...?"

"You were sleeping the entire time?!" Dizzy retorted with a mixture of annoyance and disbelief. To that the Water-type simply gave a large yawn and closed his eye once more. "Whatever..." the boy sighed. He looked back to Porygon's trainer then and said, "Nice Pokemon you've got there. After Erin, you're the second trainer now I've met who's not from Sinnoh. Sorry if I spooked you earlier. It was kinda rude of me..."

He pushed off the couch and walked towards the black-haired male, sticking out a hand in greeting and saying, "My name's Dizzy. I'm just starting my journey through Sinnoh, too. If you're headed towards Jubilife City, maybe we could travel together?"

[Sem]

Soren looked curiously at the outstretched hand before him.  He snuck out his own arm and shook Dizzy's hand.  "Hey, I'm Soren." There was a pause...  "And yeah, I came from Hoenn, this is my first time in Sinnoh." Soren stopped again as he considered the boy's proposal.  If he accepted this... 'Dizzy' would be his first traveling companion in a long while.  "Well, I am heading back that way, yes, you can tag along with me if you want to." Soren looked at Dizzy, who turned out not to be much shorter than himself. 

Soren attempted a smile, though it probably looked like one of those 'well,-ok-smiles.'  Soren tried a subject change, "Well, shall we get going?  Or are you waiting for something?" Soren asked the boy, nodding over to the counter.

[Linkachu]

OOC: Slight autoing of Soren's personality as described by Semmy himself.

BIC:

“Yeah,” Dizzy started. “Just need to wait for my Turtwig to finish healing-”

“You mean this one?” a voice suddenly called from behind. The boy turned around to find the Pokemon nurse waving a PokeBall in the air. “The restoration just completed! It should be well rested and ready to go!”

“Oh! Awesome!” Dizzy replied and hurried over to the desk to retrieve the sphere. He placed it securely onto his belt and thanked the woman again, bidding her farewell.

“Oh, what lively travelers we have these days!” he heard her murmur from behind. “Feel free to come again!” Dizzy smirked. The next time he’d be anywhere near Sandgem town, it’d be on his way home AFTER completing his journey… and hopefully, that wouldn’t be anytime soon.

“I’m good to go,” the orange-haired male called back to Soren, eyeing his resting Buizel for a moment. The Pokemon still appeared to be fast asleep. “Heh,” Dizzy smiled, reaching for a particular PokeBall with a white underside, turquoise topside and a black net-like mesh pattern on top: a Net Ball. Pointing the object towards Miles, a beam quickly shot out and returned the creature inside. There was really no reason to wake him at this point, and he could probably use the extended relaxation.

Dizzy walked back to join Soren then, giving a wave and a call after Erin, “It was nice meeting you, and thanks again! Good luck with your travels. I hope our paths cross again someday!” And he meant it. The boy was still wondering what this ’Ki’  of her’s actually was. “And now…” he looked back to the other male and jerked a thumb at the exit. “Shall we?”

***

Traveling with Soren along route 202 proved to be an interesting experience for Dizzy. He discovered early on into their trek that the slightly older male wasn’t much of a talker. Unless directly spoken to first, he rarely instigated a conversation.

The route itself was much like the one between Twinleaf and Sandgem, only a bit more winding and uphill with more patches of trees and tall grasses. The number of young trainers milling about the path was also increased, though for some odd reason whenever the males crossed their paths the majority would back away and avoid direct eye contact…

Minutes turned into hours, and before Dizzy knew it dusk was setting in. The route had turned out to be much more lengthy than he’d previously assumed - not that it was a bad thing. On the contrary, he was enjoying himself more than he could even begin to describe. Beautiful weather, the occasional flock of Starly overhead, the odd Bidoof poking its head out of the brush in search of food or simply curiosity… He’d dreamed of days like these. No walls surrounding him but the very earth, trees, and sky above. Complete and utter freedom. If it wasn’t for the odd remark from Soren, Dizzy would’ve lost himself completely to the sunset painted across the sky. With thoughts of his new Turtwig resting safely inside its PokeBall, not even the wild Pokemon interested him at this time.

As time continued to tick by the sun finally dipped beneath the horizon, leaving the stars to sparkle brightly across the heavens. An almost perfect half-moon hung peacefully above and softly illuminated the world below. As beautiful as it was, though, it wasn’t enough light to save Dizzy stumbling over the occasional fallen tree branch or rock. It was getting rather late indeed.

“Hmm… I wonder if we should camp for the night?” he murmured aloud, lighting up his wrist watch and reading the numbers 10:26 PM. If his mother knew he was still wandering outside at this time she would’ve smacked him upside the head. “… Heh. I don’t know about you, Soren, but-” he trailed off then when his eyes caught sight of unnatural lights peeking over the horizon ahead. They seemed to be moving back and forth across the ground, flickering through a variety of colors then repeating the same pattern. The further the duo marched, the higher the lights lifted into the sky…

It wasn’t long before the soft murmurs and rumblings of civilization reached their ears, growing steadily louder with each step. “We must almost be there! C’mon!” Dizzy finally cried, breaking into a run and grinning as more and more lights cut through the night. He skidded to a stop at the peak of the short hill, his eyes going wide at what lay before them.

It was Jubilife City alright, bigger and brighter than he’d ever imagined it. Millions of lights seemed to blot out the stars, and rows upon rows of buildings towered in the air as far as the eye could see. Even from his current location - which was still a good half a KM away - Dizzy could spot waves of movement in the streets below. Did this city ever sleep?

“Ahah! Look at that! Jubilife City! We finally made it!” the orange-haired boy called back over his shoulder at Soren. He waited for his companion to join him before continuing, “Well… let’s not waste another moment! C’mon, c’mon!” Dizzy smiled brightly, urging Soren forward with him. After living in a small town all his life, the sight of the vast city was almost mesmerizing. He couldn’t wait to get there.

[Sem]

OOC:  Posting, yay, after I said I would, what?  That day you posted? XD

BIC: 
Soren traveled with Dizzy on the route to Jubilife.  The trip was a little uneventful, Soren blamed himself of course, attempting to make conversation when Dizzy was out of things to say, he failed most times.  Having left in the afternoon, the sun soon hid itself behind the trees to their left, painting the whole sky orange-pink.  After not too long the night overcame the day and stars glistened.
     
Soren knew how far they had left to go, having gone through the city already on his way too the lab.  He was about to answer the boy's question about camping out for the night when Dizzy caught sight of the electric lights that shone like beacons atop Jubilife's skyscrapers.  Dizzy started running, happy to see the city, Soren saw the sense adventure on his face, a sense every train got when they started out...  It made Soren think about happier times...  "Hey, wait!" He finally called out after the boy, but he was already at the base of the hill running full speed towards the city.  The boy finally stopped, Soren was able to catch up, but then Dizzy was off again, and Soren stumbled after.

Soren lost track of him as soon as they entered the city.  He stood near the welcoming gate, scratching his head and blowing away some stray hair from his face.  "Ah well..." Soren sighed as he walked off.  The first thing he would do would be to eat something, his last meal this morning, and it was some toast at that, he was starving.  Soren let the scent of pizza lure him into a pizza palor, he stared lustfully at the menu and ordered his pizza.  After he was full he put the leftovers in a box and walked to the Pokemon Center which was at the center of the city.  Soren figured he might as well get a room for the night, it was about 11:30 now, he hoped Dizzy wouldn't go too crazy and lose himself in the city nightlife, Soren smiled.  He walked into the dark room and turned on the small lamp on the desk, he discarded his bag and let it slump to the floor.

The 17 year old showered and readied himself for bed, he hoped to fall asleep soon, but his mind lingered on other thoughts that kept him awake, mainly that incident in Sandgem earlier today.  "I've got to get that Porygon under control."  He's been unable to use Porygon properly since he first got the digital thing.  It was simply to wild, like it taunted Soren.  He's tried training it but it only likes to escape and go off.  "I need a stricter training method." he thought again.  Finally he rose, grabbing the Poketch that lay on the desk, it read, 12:13pm.  He slapped the device onto his wrist and slipped into some clean clothes and his shoes.  The lobby of the center was empty, and a tired Nurse Joy was leaning on the counter, cheek resting against her right hand and her left fingers tapping the counter.  Soren waved at her as he walked out to a large area of grass behind the center. 

Soren snatched a ball from his belt and tossed it to the ground, Starmie appeared in the glow's wake.  Soren grabbed another ball and tossed it, the mischievous Porygon appeared in midair.  Immediately it tried to escape.  "Psychic." Soren said simply, Starmie caught the Porygon before it was able to get anywhere.  "No you don't, Porygon." Soren said with a smirk.  "You're going to get some proper training now, any attempt at escape will be stopped by Starmie."  Starmie withdrew the Psychic and Porygon stayed in one spot, quirking madly, but not moving.   "Now let's see what attacks you should know..." Soren trailed off as he dug his new PokeDex out of his pocket, he pointed the device at Porygon and it beeped to life.

"The world's first artificially created Pokémon. It can travel through electronic space.This Pokémon is copy-protected so it cannot be duplicated by copying." an electronic voice described Porygon, in a 'female' voice. 

"Well there's something I knew already." he murmured as he shifted through the list of attacks that his particular Porygon was capable of preforming.  "Try a Psyb-HEY!" Soren yelled as Porygon attempted another escape, but was foiled once again by Starmie.  "I told you you're not escaping." Soren glared at Porygon who beeped sadly.  "Now try a Psybeam." Soren waited...  nothing happened.  "Look, I know you know how to preform the attack.  Use.  Psybeam." Soren ordered.  Porygon reared back its head reluctantly and multi-color beam shout out from where the creature's mouth would be, if he had one.  The beam shot harmlessly through the air and dissipated soon afterwards.  "Good!" Soren said almost gleefully.  Porygon beeped cheerfully.  "Now..." Soren scrolled through the attacks, Porygon only seemed to know one damaging move, that being Psybeam.  There was always Tackle, but EVERYTHING had Tackle, and Tackle seemed rather useless on a Porygon, which was obviously meant for special attacking. 

"Well, let's work on your support moves.  Starmie, Water Gun." Soren had said it so sudden that Porygon really had no time to dodge.  The attack hit Porygon and it was sent back through the air a bit.  "Sorry about that, but it needed to happen." Soren called out, Porygon was shaking madly.  "Conversion 2!"  Porygon let out a defiant ping, Soren sighed.  "Recover!" Porygon obeyed at this and was surrounded by light momentarily, when it faded Soren attempted again.  "Conversion 2."  Porygon seemed to breaking apart into pixels, they were moving around and reshaping themselves.  Once the process had finished, Porygon had some minor differences, it was more streamlined, and its 'legs' had taken on more the shape of fins, as had its tail.  Soren glanced at the PokeDex, noting how it suddenly said that Porygon was a Water-type instead of a Normal-type.  "Excellent." he said.

The two continued this training for a while, Porygon still offered resistance at times, but generally Soren was happy with What was done by the time he climbed back into bed and fell asleep.

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Erin waved at Dizzy as he went by - noting the fact he was walking with the trainer of the hyperactive Porygon with mild amusement. She then proceeded to extract her town map from her pocket and study it intently for a while. According to the map, the way to Oreburgh passed through Jubilife City, twisted eastwards to Route 203 and slowly climbed up the lower slopes of Mount Coronet and finally passing through a tunnel marked as the 'Oreburgh Gate'. She dreaded the thought of returning to Jubilife - big cities were never her thing, and extremely busy ones full to the brim with reporters, noisy schoolchildren and those damnable mascot clowns she found just plain disturbing. But there was no way around it - the route looked like traversing it would take a while. She might actually have to check in at the Jubilife PokéMon Center for the night.

"Let's just hope none of those clowns kill me in my sleep." she muttered to herself, and away she went.

~*~

Her journey through Route 202 was fairly uneventful. None of the 'skilled' young trainers that she completely trounced earlier had any intention of approaching her again. The local wildlife was mainly the little gray birds (which her new PokéDex referred to as 'Starly'. She shuddered - researchers were getting REALLY unimaginative with PokéMon names these days...), multiple instances of the strange tail-less beaver-like thing  (which usually just froze, staring at her like a Stantler caught in headlights - she had no wonder regarding why the creatures were called 'Bidoofs') and strange black-and blue creatures that vaguely resembled lion cubs with a distinctive star shaped tail-tip (her PokéDex identified them as 'Shinx' and basically confirmed their identity as glowing dynamo kittens). Nothing overly exciting there. She leafed through her PokéDex to see what any of these creatures evolved into, just to pass the time.

Bidoof's evolution, Bibarel, was a larger beaver-like creature that looked even sillier than Bidoof did, if that was even possible. (Erin nursed the notion that if this creature looked any more dopey and vacant it'd probably be pink, with a longer tail and an unnatural affinity for yawning and Shellders). She was less amused to see that Starly evolved into a larger bird with a feather crest that made her think of ice cream more than anything else, and then evolved into something that looked like a cross between a hawk, an owl   and an Elvis impersonator - just a little more emo. Oh, it was an interesting looking bird - but to Erin, it had nothing on the Pidgeots of her homeland.

Shinx's evolutions were simple upgrades, the creature growing larger and more streamlined and slowly being covered by more black fur - until finally becoming a nimble feline creature halfway resembling a lion (she felt, for a moment, a strange urge to get in a car). The creature, 'Luxray', according to her PokéDex, had the gift of X-Ray vision, which gave it the uncanny ability to see its prey as a skeleton before actually leaving it as one. In her mind, she could see the creature running, dramatic music playing behind it, mane billowing in the wind, eyes glowing... before anticlimactically smacking into a wall, forgetting for a moment that it could only SEE through walls, not WALK through them.

"I'm horrendous sometimes." she grinned halfheartedly, folding the Pokédex into her pocket and gazing off into the distance. Sunset was fast approaching.

~*~

When she made it to Jubilife, it was night already. As with her earlier trip she decided to make her stay in Jubilife as brief as possible. She located the PokéMon center, checked into a room (Room no. 36, she noted to herself - no recurring theme so far) and settled down. She picked up a large towel from a cabinet, stuffed her outfit in one of these cloth washing/drying/ironing machines that PokéMon centers universally had then proceeded to take a lengthy shower, change into pajamas and crash on the bed, falling asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. She didn't think she would be that tired - the "excitement" of the city must have somehow filtered into the air and that alone exhausted her as if she spent the entire day running around on the exquisitely paved streets and evading clowns.

She would have rather left that for after breakfast.

[Linkachu]

OOC: Sssh, grave digging alert! I'm sure I want to reply

Consider this thread - revived! It ain't pretty, or logical - but it's something ^^

BIC:

“Wow, wow, WOW! This place… is-so-awesome! HEE!” Dizzy squeed as he stood smack-dab in the middle of Jubilife City’s main street. His eyes gleamed wildly with glee as he took in the sights, people surrounding him in all directions. The boy was completely unaware that his mouth was hanging open again - maybe it was all the lights frying his brains. Regardless, he had ‘country bumpkin’ written all over his face… which probably explained the funny looks he was getting. The fact he’d been standing in the same spot, wearing the exact same expression for over 5 minutes certainly didn’t help his case.

After a bit his excitement waned just enough to think about the little people in his life… that being his two Pokemon. Miles and Turtwig! They had to see this, too! But where? He couldn’t just release them in the middle of the street - even he wasn’t that brain-dead yet. The carrot-top peered through the crowd for a safe spot and soon noted a nearby grassy park-area with a large fountain in the center. There was a few people gathered around, but for the most part it seemed clear.

“’Scuse me!” “Pardon me!” Dizzy pipped up apologetically as he pushed through the masses, finally breaking through to jog the rest of the distance to the base of the fountain. “Ahhh…” he heaved a relaxed sigh, staring at the three-layered, white marble fountain that towered above him and briefly losing himself in its crystal-clear waters. It was like a mini, man-made waterfall…

A sudden squirt from the spray brought his thoughts back to Miles, and Dizzy quickly whirled around, grabbed the two occupied PokeBalls from his belt, and tossed them into the air. In a flash, both the Buizel and Turtwig appeared on the grass before him. “Bui-buiii!” Miles cried cheerfully, yet immediately noticed the fountain. Without giving the boy another thought the Pokemon dashed past him and leaped gracefully into the air, diving into the waters and creating a small wave that splashed anyone who’d been sitting on the edge of the marble structure.

“Miles…!” Dizzy yelped as a few angry “Hey’s!” went up around them, but the Buizel simply rolled onto his back and swam peacefully around the fountain base with a content smile. Dizzy grunted. Way to model behaviour for the new member of their team… Speaking of which! “Hey, Turtwig,“ the boy started to say as he turned back towards the Grass-type, “don’t you take after-GAH!” His eyes went wide with horror at the sight of the Turtwig racing towards a couple - looking to be in their 20s - sitting quietly a short distance away. The male of the pair was drinking something out of a glass bottle… which the turtle proceeded to snatch straight out of his hand with an amazingly fluid lunge.

“Wha? … H-Hey, you crazy Turtwig! I was drinking that!” The guy cried with disbelief, jumping up and taking off after the tiny turtle. The girl he’d been with, who simply sat back and stared, seemed completely shell-shocked (no pun intended).

“Why me!” Dizzy groaned, glancing at Miles briefly to stammer, “Don’t move!” before taking off after the Turtwig as well. While the young adult male currently in pursuit seemed a good weight, he was apparently in poor shape as the teen speedily passed him. The boy was gaining on the Pokemon now, who still continued to ignore his pleas to stop.

In a final act of desperation (because, seriously, not only was it tiring, it was freakin’ embarrassing) Dizzy leaped forward with out-stretched arms to grab the Pokemon tightly, hanging on roughly as the two rolled through the grass. Once they’d skidded to a stop, the Pokemon appearing slightly shaken, the teen pried the bottle out of its jaws and held it high in the air; his other arm still wrapped tightly around the Grass-type to hold it down. Dizzy could barely believe what had just happened, gazing at the drink and reading the label, “Apple flavoured Snapple… All of this for a random drink!?” He rolled his eyes and looked back down to the Pokemon. “You’re crazy, y’know that?”

“Turt-wiiiiig…” the creature whimpered in defeat, yet it eyed the bottle sadly as if it’d been the one wronged.

“You… kid… I want… my Snapple back…” a tuckered voice of came from behind then. Dizzy looked up just in time to have the older male grab the drink out of his hand, clutching it tightly against his chest like something precious.  “You… keep that bloody thing on a leash from now on, okay…? Next time… someone could lose an eye!” With that the male turned and grumbled away, the teen merely gazing after him blankly.

“I guess some people really love their Snapple…” Dizzy muttered, finally releasing the Pokemon and pushing himself up into a proper sitting position. The Turtwig too sat back and met the boy’s gaze. “I’ve never even heard about the stuff… Snapple… Wonder if it’s any good…? Apparently you seemed to think so.” He chuckled lightly at the Grass-type's sheepish response. A thought occurred to Dizzy then and he gave a laugh, “Why don’t we just call you Snapple then? Seems appropriate to me!”

“Wig!” the Pokemon seemed to laugh too, but still not in an objecting way.

“Alright then. Snapple it is. Welcome to the team!” Dizzy smiled brightly and stuck out an arm, to which the Pokemon stared at blankly  for a moment before sticking out a forearm of its own. The boy took it in his hand and gave it a good shake. “Nice to meet you, too!”

***

Once that craziness had passed, the boy and Pokemon had regrouped with Miles and made their way out of the park into the bustling night life. Dizzy had planned to check out tons of attractions, but upon meeting an overly plump and scary looking clown things hit a snag… What the clown had proposed was simple: answer a question, get a coupon for a free Poketch (it was part of some sort of promotion). Supposedly Poketch could do all sorts of different things, you just needed the right apps for them. Sounded pretty cool to Dizzy, and free was free, so why not give it a shot?

… An hour and a half of guessing later, the clown had almost literally smacked the boy in the face with the coupon yelling, “Here! Take it! Just take it! GODDAMMIT I CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” then proceeded to hurry away sobbing down the street and vanish from sight. Dizzy personally felt the guy had overreacted, but a free coupon was a free coupon! Only… the Poketch Co. building was closed when he’d gotten there - and it was only 2:30 AM! Seriously, what sort of respectable corporation closed that early?

It was only then that the boy had realized he was actually getting a bit sleepy, so him and his Pokemon (who’d kept giving him disgruntled growls for some reason) trekked back to the Pokemon Center to crash for the night. They never did make it past the couches however, as the moment Dizzy had sat down to rest his eyes he’d fallen fast asleep.

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

OOC: Dear god Dizzy is HYPER. xD

The sun was rising - slowly, but it was rising. And as soon as the first beams shone through the window and touched the girl's face, her eyes snapped open. She needed that - she wasn't sure how long she really slept, but it felt like it's been at least a year - or maybe even two. She was well rested - and all set to get the hell out of this... remarkable city.

She shuddered softly, and proceeded to stretch thoroughly, catlike. Then, she rose out of bed, stretching again. She always slept curled up in a ball, and there were few things more enjoyable for her than a good morning stretch. Except for a good morning shower, that is.

And that indeed was her next move. Emerging from the shower, the girl quickly got herself dressed, surveying herself in the mirror for a moment. It'll do. Now what she needed was breakfast.

Slinging her backpack over her shoulder, Erin stepped out of the room and locked it, heading for the diner wing.

~*~

Breakfast that day was some form of extra-fluffy pancakes with some kind of berry syrup that she never had before and quite liked. It was early - and there were only a few other people in the diner wing. She surveyed them for a moment - most of them seemed to be just your average locals, but one of them caught her eye. He was a bespectacled male with long, dark-brown hair and a trenchcoat who was, at the moment, sitting on his own at a corner table, gazing out the window wistfully while absorbing some kind of hot drink. He seemed to be troubled by something - and had a certain air of difference to him. A moment after she noticed him he rose to his feet, disposing of the cup and left hurriedly. She could almost notice a haunted expression in his eyes.

She dwelled on this for a moment, but soon shrugged it off. He must have been just as eager to get the hell out of the city as she was.

~*~

Moments later, she left the diner wing and returned her room key to the Nurse Joy - only to do a double-take when she noticed that on one of the benches was the boy she met before - Dizzy - sleeping like a Snorlax in the middle of a busy intersection. She rolled her eyes with a little smirk, pondering if she should wake him up, before deciding against it. He looked like he still needed his rest.

With one last look to the PokéMon Center, the girl spun on her heels and walked away as quickly as she could. The sooner she hit Oreburgh Gate, the better. If her life was the huge plot device she felt it was sometimes, it was long overdue to begin.

[Linkachu]

“Look at it, Miles! Isn’t it shiny? I never expected to get a brand new Poketch for free!” Dizzy giggled excitedly as he held his wrist up to the sky, the morning’s light reflecting off the metallic blue Poketch. He lowered it to check the time, gazing up and down the waking streets with a frown.  “We never did run into Soren again. I guess he went on without us. It’s not like we’d planned to stick together, but it might’ve been fun traveling with another person for a bit…”

He felt a few gentle pats against his leg then and looked down to find Miles smiling reassuringly at him. “Yeah… You’re right. We’ve still got each other - Snapple too! And who knows? Maybe we’ll run into someone else, or better yet - find a new Pokemon to catch!” Dizzy clenched his fists excitedly and gazed up at the bright blue sky. Just as they said - whoever ‘they’ were - today was the first day of the rest of his life! All he had to do was stock up on supplies, then it was goodbye Jubilife City and hello open road!

***

To the seasoned traveler route 203 might not have been anything fancy, but to someone like Dizzy it was filled with wonder and excitement. Every patch of tall grass or clump of trees gave the possibility of wild Pokemon lurking nearby.

“This is great, Miles. The air is clean, the sun is shining bright, the gentle breeze… It’s the perfect first full day of our journey! Now, there’s only one thing left that could make it better…” He shielded his eyes from the sun and gazed around their surroundings, searching for that one special thing to make the day complete… A rustle in the bushes suddenly caught the corner of his eye and he spun around to point and yell, “There!”

A bewildered Bidoof froze mid-bite on a fallen log and met the boy‘s gaze. You could swear one of its beady eyes gave a nervous twitch.

Miles quickly took his battle stance, but Dizzy abruptly laughed, “Nah! Let’s explore some more first. C’mon, Miles! Bye, random Bidoof!”

Dizzy waved and took off running down the route, leaving the Bidoof and a quizzical Buizel staring after him. Miles eyed the Bidoof and shrugged with a bemused “Bui…” before giving a wave of his own and hurrying off after his trainer.  

The boy was having the time of his life as they continued down the route, gawking excitedly at the various Pokemon along the way. Shinx, Abra, Kricketot - it was great fun to see! Numerous times did he skid to a stop and call Miles to battle… only to change his mind at the last second and skip off again on his merry way. He was oblivious to the slowly cracking Buizel silently plotting his untimely demise. But alas - this was Dizzy, and Miles could only sigh and shake his head. A lot.

That was until a maddening noise filled the air. “What the heck…?” Dizzy paused to stare up to skies, but he couldn’t see anything yet. He could only hear the sound of countless wings and the screeching of birds; of Starly, if he recalled correctly. The amount of voices involved however… It had to be a mass of at least one hundred, possibly more, and they sounded crazed.

Even Miles seemed astonished by the noise, taking a few steps past Dizzy to gaze off into the distance. He suddenly pointed towards the north-east and hopped eagerly on the spot, “Bui! Bui-bui!”

“That’s where the sound is coming from?”

Miles turned and cried excitedly, “Bui!”

“Gotcha. Lead the way, Miles! I gotta see what’s going on.”

Miles nodded and took off running, with Dizzy following shortly behind. A sane person would approach a situation like this with caution, but all Dizzy could do was grin like the fool he was.

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

It wasn't long at all before Jubilife was little more than an unhappy memory to the redhead. Now she was trudging through Route 203, which was not quite as unhappy and not quite as memorable, either.

It was an early morning - early enough for the route to be largely devoid of human life. The wild PokeMon seemed to generally ignore her. Suited her just fine. The less random encounters she had to face, the more energy she and Ki would have to tackle - if her experience with caverns was any indication - the mass amounts of Floating Rocks and Bats that would dive down from the ceiling with a deafening SKREE that she would indubitably run into.

Her green, arm-bladed companion paced silently by her side, content with the morning breeze. Soon, the land began to rise as the route began its climb up the great slopes of the Coronet Ridge. The closer she moved to the ridge, the more rugged the terrain became - until at length, she found herself face to face with a tunnel, An old, weathered sign with the word "Oreburgh Gate, Through to Oreburgh City." posted over its entrance.

"Well, guess we might as well get a move on." Erin murmured "Before nature changes its mind about being nice to me."