Some would call it suicide, we call it a challenge

[Birdybot]

Starly watched as Voyager emerged, expecting Selek to withdraw him at any moment, so that he'd still gain a little experience. But... no. Voyager was actually going to fight it. The bird chuckled, which quickly transformed into roaring peals of laughter. This was just so funny! It could hardly believe it was facing a mere Magikarp. This would be so easy it might not even lose any weight. Shame, but it would still gain levels.

Starly watched Voyager carefully, judging the flopping fish Pokémon. He didn't seem to have a lot on his mind, although it probably wasn't possible for him to have much on his mind other than 'breathe, flop, hungry, ow' or something. The bird charged at him on its two legs. This was a Tackle, not very fast but more powerful thanks to Starly's weight.

[Klomonx]

Selek watched the Starly begin a charge to tackle, and Voyager simply sat with a grin on its face, flopping a little. "Voyager! Use Splash to jump over the Starly, and shoot it with Water Gun!" Voyager took a few seconds to react, and then suddenly it dawned on him. His eyes widened and he splashed into the air, just barely dodging the Starly. As Voyager sailed through the air, he shot down a water gun. However because Voyager had some trouble seeing as he was in the air, Picard seemed to mutter something.

"What was that?" Selek thought to his Daemon, sharply. "I said, its going to miss. Voyager is a pathetically weak Pokemon, and only a dunce would have chosen a Pokemon that thinks it can win when it has no true legs!" Selek blinked and narrowed his eyes at Picard. He looked away from the battle and slapped Picard. Picard expected it, and said nothing as he took his punishment. He did not comment, he remained silent.

[Birdybot]

Starly was extremely shocked when it saw Selek slap Picard. What the...? How could he? slap his own daemon? What an idiot. Starly knew perfectly well that when a daemon felt pain, so did his human. Because of that, Selek was only hurting himself, the idiot. Plus, he'd picked a Magikarp. This had to be the most stupid human ever. Starly felt determined to prove Picard's words true, to make Selek realize his daemon wasn't bad. The bird dodged the Water Gun easily.

Starly smiled as best as he could with his beak, looking at Picard. He was fairly sure that he liked the daemon, but not so much the human. He wouldn't mention that, for he guessed that Selek would only hurt himself through his poor broken daemon again. The Flying type turned back to the battle against Voyager, not in the least bit worried that he'd turned his back to a Magikarp. He charged at him again in another Tackle.

[Klomonx]

Selek sensed that the Starly thought ill of him. The Starly wasn't the first Pokemon to think that, and surely wouldn't be the last. Selek would later forgive Picard, and Picard already had forgiven Selek. It was hard not too, seeing as Picard knew Selek very well, and knew why he had been slapped. It was not really a punishment for Picard, simply a release for Selek, as he had no other way to express it.

Selek's attention turned back to the battle, and he saw that Voyager had missed. It was to be expected, Voyager still had learning to do, and seemed not to be able to focus on such a thing as battling. When Voyager hit the ground he knew he had missed, but only flopped around repeating that he had done so. The Starly went to tackle again, "Voyager! Use water gun on the charging Starly!" Voyager began to prepare himself to shoot the attack, when he was rammed by the tackle and set off the water gun before he was totally ready.

Voyager flopped backward, and then continued to flop as he panicked, afraid to be hit by the tackle. He was learning, slowly, that it was best to dodge and to react as fast as he could to Selek's orders. Still, he had sent out a water gun, had it hit?

[Birdybot]

Starly was pleased to have hit Voyager. That shortened the battle a little. It was a little confused as to why a Magikarp knew Water Gun, but supposed that it might be the equivelent to an egg move like all the Pokémon from the lab came with. He was hit by this Water Gun, but was pleased to feel that Voyager's not-readiness had been reflected in the power of the attack. The Water Gun was not as powerful as it could be, but Starly was still hurt a little from it.

The Flying type still thought it would be nice and easy to do this. After all, a Magikarp? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. True, he'd been hit, but Voyager's aim wasn't the best of things, and Flying types tended to have a very good aim thanks to their very good eyes. Starly could see better than many other things could. The bird charged at Voyager in another Tackle, hoping to hit again.

[Klomonx]

Selek knew that this battle would be much harder than the battle with the Weedle. In fact, Selek had a feeling that Voyager's chances of winning were very slim, unless Voyager was able to listen and react fast enough. Such a thing seemed so very impossible from any angle that Selek looked at it. Selek glanced at Voyager, he seemed to be learning a little on how to battle.

When the Starly charged again, Selek noticed that Voyager seemed to be flopping slower then usual, but he did not seem in pain. Perhaps he was trying to focus and listen for once? Selek decided if this was true, "Voyager, dodge it!" Voyager flopped over the Starly at the last second, he felt the air from the Tackle, and he landed behind the Starly. "Turn around and follow it up with another Water Gun!" Voyager took a few moments to flop back to face the Starly, and he then sent out a Water Gun. Selek hoped that maybe Voyager would stay in focus this time, but such a thing was unlikely.

[Birdybot]

Starly watched as Voyager flopped over his head. That was the one thing Magikarp were good at; flopping. Aimlessly. This perticular flop had served the purpose of dodging, though. If only Starly could fly! Then he'd be able to hit the fish without a problem. The bird was annoyed that he couldn't fly, but continued with the battle. It looked like the Water type was preparing another Water Gun. Starly let it hit, feeling the need for a little excitement in this battle.

With a flutter of wings, Starly used said wings to make an aided jump backwards, so he'd have more of a run-up for his next Tackle. He ran at Voyager. Starly weren't very fast on the ground normally, but spending so much time there had given Starly a lot of practice. He was able to move fairly quickly, darting towards Voyager in a Tackle, wings partially open to make himself more streamlined.

[Klomonx]

Selek was glad to see that the Water-Gun hit, even though he knew that the Starly had let it hit, and that it was simply out of pity and a want for a challenge. It was hard to make any battle challenging when you had a Magikarp to work with, and yet Selek had a large amount of faith with his Magikarp.

When the Starly charged with a tackle again, Selek saw that he was going faster then before by using his wings. He was a smart Starly, even though he couldn't fly. Voyager flopped around again, quite happy to have his attack hit, and hence loosing focus. "Voyager, you need to dodge!" Voyager hit the ground, and launched himself into the air, but the tackle still hit him. It caused Voyager to flip over, and land just behind the Starly. The tackle had hit Voyager half-way, so it was only half effective. Needless to say it still hurt Voyager.

Voyager hit the ground and flopped around half-heartedly. "~Ow..~" Voyager moaned as he began to flop again. The experience of being knocked about with a tackle wasn't very pleasant. "Come on, Voyager! Focus! You need to make your pain, your power. Hit the Starly with another water gun!" Voyager obeyed. He flopped about and sprayed another water gun at the Starly. Things looked rather grim for Selek and Voyager.

[Birdybot]

Starly looked behind it to see where Voyager was at that moment, but was met by a faceful of Water Gun. The bird hissed in annoyance, wiping the liquid from his eyes with a dry wing. This was getting pretty annoying. His Tackles had hit one and a half- he couldn't could that last one as a proper hit- times out of four. Voyager's Water Guns had hit three times out of four. That was hardly fair; Starly were known for their high speed stats, and Magikarp for their low ones. Besides, what did Voyager really need to dodge for? Magikarp had a higher defense that Starly! Flying types in general had a very poor defense stat, which was why Starly was currently in a far much worse state than his opponent.

The bird was getting pretty annoyed at this battle. How come a Magikarp was dodging everything, and then when he was just scraped by a Tackle, he and his trainer began thinking it was the end! Well, Starly had taken more than double what they had, and he wasn't dead, was he? The world wasn't over for him, was it? Starly felt as if Voyager and Selek should grow up and start fighting properly rather than wimping out. Startly's anger boosted his next attack, which from a close range looked like it would be a sure hit.

[Klomonx]

Picard sighed as he watched the battle, he saw and felt the same way the Starly did. All Voyager did was dodge attacks, and then back-stab him with a water gun. Still, Picard had to admit, it was an effective strategy, and was giving the Starly the work out he had been looking for, after all. Still, Picard felt more and more like this Magikarp was a waste of time, all it was good for was flopping and moaning with every hit it took. Heck, Defense and Speed was its highest stat, Voyager would do fine, and surely Selek knew that.

Voyager flopped a little bit, the landing had been a little hard, and that was what stung-more then the tackle had. "Voyager look out!" Selek called, and Voyager hardly had the time to look before he was tackled backward. The Magikarp rolled away from his starting point, the tackle had hit him full force, and the rolling surely hadn't been good on him. Voyager moaned again and then began to flop about, as if nothing had occurred. "Voyager, hit Starly with another water gun!" Voyager lost his focus again, and after a few moments of recovering his easily-excited joy, aimed, and fired yet another water gun.

[Birdybot]

Picard was right- the battle was indeed giving Starly the workout he wanted. The bird didn't think so, however. He was incredibly pleased to see another Tackle attack hit, but could easily guess what would happen next- the Magikarp would moan, flop about, then fire a Water Gun. Sure enough, that was exactly what happened. However, Starly, without thinking, did something no-one would have expected. He dodged the attack- by flying over it.

The bird let out a great coo of delight to find himself hanging in the air a couple of feet off the ground. He attempted to go higher, but only managed an inch or so. Still, being able to hover was better than nothing. The Flying type angled his wings and shot back down to earth in a Tackle attack with Voyager as his target.

[Klomonx]

Selek had not expected the Starly to suddenly learn how to fly; but he also knew that was what he wanted to happen. However now it would become much harder to dodge. Magikarp were known to splash just when a flying-type could catch them, the fact that now the Starly had the upper hand meant this battle was not taking a wrong turn.

Picard simply chuckled at the fact the Starly had learned how to fly, even with such an infernal Pokemon. Selek watched Starly now began to tackle Voyager from the sky. "Voyager, you need to dodge it!" Voyager began to flop about, but as he went to flop higher into the air, the Starly collided with him, send him back into the ground. He continued to flop, but the attack had been a critical one. "Voyager! Use water gun, quickly!" Voyager was close to Starly, and for once the Magikarp focused, and set out a water gun once more. Hopefully it would hit as hard as the tackle had struck him.

[Birdybot]

Starly cooed in truimph as his Tackle struck a sucessful mark, then moved lower to try and make a gentler landing than what he had previously done. Unfortunately, Voyager was actually faster this time, for the fact that Starly was taking a while deciding what angle and speed might be safest. The Water Gun pushed the bird higher into the sky, where he began to fall. Most Flying types would simply fly up again rather than hitting the floor, but Starly couldn't fly against the force of it, and landed heavily on the ground.

Starly got up shakily. It was clear that he wouldn't last much longer- in fact, by the way he was swaying, I wouldn't be surprised if he fainted this turn. His inablity to fly properly coupled with his slight ability to hover had become his downfall, and he could hardly believe that he was losing to a stupid Magikarp. Honestly, it was ridiculous. None the less, the Flying type fell to the ground, closed his eyes and lost conciousness.

Starly was defeated! Voyager gains two levels!

[Klomonx]

It was quite a relief to Selek, to see that Voyager was still flopping around after it shot the Water Gun. At least Voyager always seemed happy, no matter how badly he was being beaten up by the other Pokemon. Even more amazing for Selek, was that Voyager had beat the Starly, as he watched it try to stand only to fall and land flat. Viyager had won his second battle, again to a Pokemon who thought that being beaten by a Magikarp was the greatest insult possible. Selek sighed, now he had the fainted Starly on his hands. In truth, he didn't want to catch it, even though he knew he needed a flying type. Selek wasn't sure if he'd be able to deal with Picard pointing out they had three, very weak, Pokemon. Also, Selek knew that catching Starly had not been the point of the battle.

"Voyager, return." Selek said simply, the Shiny Magikarp returning to its Pokeball as Selek walked over to the Starly and beant down to it. He took out a Potion, and began to heal the Starly. It wasn't right to have the Pokemon just lay there, fainted. Especally this Starly, who still seemed to be unable to fly. Picard had no comment, at least, on what Selek did so maybe he had done the right thing, for once.

[Birdybot]

Starly slowly came around. He groaned, rubbing his head with a wing. He felt a little achey, but not as bad as he had expected. Selek and Picard swam into view. Huh? Oh, right. He had lost against a Magikarp... not the best of things to have happened. Starly could also see an empty Potion in Selek's hand; he must have healed Starly. That was nice, the bird supposed. The strange trainer might be a little harsh at times, but perhaps he wasn't completely terrible.

Starly was wide awake now, and recalled flying. Actually flying, for the first time in his life. If he kept on battling with this trainer, he might be able to fly properly. ~Trainer, can I go along with you? Please?~[/color] he asked. Starly might be a useful addition to Selek's team. His chubbiness meant that the attacks he dealt would be harder than usual, and when he lost that, they'd be lightning fast. Plus, Starraptor were pretty cool and fairly strong, too.[/size]