Follow the Yellow Brick Road

[Birdybot]

The Burmy, being fainted, could of course do nothing to stop the Pokéball from absorbing it inside it by the usual method of that strange, wonderful red light. However, once inside a Pokéball, every Pokémon is given the chance to escape. Burmy woke, although terribly weak of course, inside the Pokémon. It was most alarmed to find itself in this place. How on earth had that happened? Must've been that trainer.

Burmy then wriggled and fought, clawing and rocking the Pokéball. It shook rather violently as Burmy attempted to free itself, but then slowed as it's weariness took over. Finally, it stopped altogether, as Burmy gave up. Oh, well. Hopefully this trainer would level it up enough to evolve, then. With a ping, Burmy's capture was announced.

Lith caught a Burmy!

/ /
Name:
Species: Burmy
Gender:
Level: 6
Ability: Shed Skin
Attacks: Protect, Vine Whip
Personality: It is a mystery as to why this Burmy know the move Vine Whip. However, that aside, it desperately wants to evolve. A hardy, determined Pokémon, this Burmy will never give up and will never back down from a challenge so that it might get a little closer to evolving.

[img]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/2/23/Spr_4p_412.png[/img]/ [img]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/f/f9/Spr_4p_412G.png[/img]/ [img]http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/6/60/Spr_4p_412S.png[/img]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Species:[/b] Burmy
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Level:[/b] 6
[b]Ability:[/b] Shed Skin
[b]Attacks:[/b] Protect, Vine Whip
[b]Personality:[/b] It is a mystery as to why this Burmy know the move Vine Whip. However, that aside, it desperately wants to evolve. A hardy, determined Pokémon, this Burmy will never give up and will never back down from a challenge so that it might get a little closer to evolving.

[Zorrel]

Lithalia, Alexucard, and Blaedyn stared at the pokeball a few feet in front of them. The trio watched in suspense, unmoving and with held breath, as it shook back and forth. Once the pokeball gave a ting to assure that the targeted Pokemon had successfully been captured, they all gave a collective sigh. "Yesssssss, it worked!" Lith shouted enthusiastically. She excitedly ran over to the pokeball and grasped it. For a moment, she stared at the sphere in her hands in which the Burmy was held. Her Burmy. My very first caught Pokemon, she thought with a gleeful giggle, her eyes beaming. "You're the newest member of our family, Burmy. We're gonna be the bestest, strongest team ever!'' the young trainer spoke to the Burmy in the pokeball. "I think we'll call you Rikio. Do you like that name~?''

Alex and Blaedyn padded over and sat by her side. ~New friend! I'm glad we got to catch him.~ Blaedyn yipped happily. The little Riolu padded at his trainers arms, and Lith squatted down to show her partners the shiny pokeball that held their new teammate.

"Yes, more members for our team is just what we need,'' Alex cheerfully barked in agreement.

Lith stood and nodded. "Right, so, we need to try and get this little guy to a PokeCenter; I'm sure Blaedyn's a bit worn out, too." She didn't like seeing Pokemon hurt; especially if she's technically the one who did the hurting. Still, Lith knew that was the only way to become stronger, so she decided she'd deal with it and never ever force her Pokemon too hard. She stood and looked around, trying to decide which path they should take. "Let's go this way!" she concluded, even though there was a hint of doubt in her voice.

Alex teasingly rolled his eyes; he didn't want them to get lost on their very first day on the journey. The sun was high in the sky; it was already noon. There was still a way's to go until the closest town, but they all set off to continue down the route nevertheless.

[Birdybot]

All seemed to be quiet up and down the route. However, that would be a wrong assumption. In fact, the route was lively, it simply took a trained eyes to see it. Below Lith's feet, Ground types would no doubt be digging. All around, Pokémon went about their daily lives, hidden in bushes and such. In the treetops, Flying types sung merrily. Other Pokémon disguised themselves as other things. So, although nothing was to be seen, there were evident signs of life.

Footprints, for example. Some of such footprints led to a half-eaten berry, and then on into the route somewhere. They were very small, and appeared to be of some quadrupedal Pokémon. However, there was much better things to do than follow footprints. Why go to a Pokémon when one was coming to you? Yes, up ahead, a Pokémon was to be seen. Snuffling sounds came from a form in the middle of the path, hunched over and still.

The Pokémon appeared to be a Ralts. It was hunched over, arms around it's legs, head buried in those arms. It was shaking with huge, heart-wrenching sobs. It glanced at Lith, but didn't seem to care. Ralts' gaze was a most horrible thing to look at. Those eyes, which should have been full of live, were dead and empty. It was the very picture of misery, and didn't seem to care about anything any more except for whatever it was crying about. What, exactly, was the matter, anyway?

[Zorrel]

The young trainer, her daemon, and her two new Pokemon had been walking down the path dotted with freshly fallen leaves for a while now. The afternoon sun could be seen through gaps in the treetops every now and then and its bright light would shine on their equally bright, smiling faces. They'd been quiet, as they were simply enjoying each other's company and taking in the sights and sounds; bird Pokemon singing, autumn leaves crunching underfoot, gasps of miserable sobbing - wait, miserable sobbing? That didn't sound right, not at all.

Lithalia let out a gasp of her own when she first heard the crying. It didn't take long, however, for the small party to locate the source of these loud sobs. "Oh!" Lith exclaimed as she started running toward the wailing Ralts. Blaedyn jumped out of her arms and followed, with Alex right beside him. The young girl kneeled down beside the Pokemon, a sincerely concerned expression across her face. "Hey there, what's wrong?" she worriedly asked. Alex and Blaedyn sat beside her, both equally concerned about the Ralt's condition.

[Birdybot]

Ralts seemed a little frightened as Lith moved over to it; it's muscles tensed up. It relaxed, however, as it saw that they were nice. They were asking what was wrong. Ralts wondered whether or not to tell them. On one hand, she was a human. Humans were the cause of the problem. On the other hand, she was a trainer, could solve the problem, and was it's only hope right now. Ralts wanted to act before it was too late. Yes, Ralts would tell her.

Ralts, now Lith was up close, seemed to be very young. Too young to even be out of it's parent's care, although nearing the age. It sniffled, wiping it's eyes which quickly became wet again. ~The men... The bad men... they... t-t-they took my mummy and daddy!~[/color] it wailed, breaking down crying again. So, it's parents had been kidnapped. No wonder it was crying.[/size]

[Zorrel]

The trio's expressions changed to that of surprise once they heard this. Kidnapping? Lithalia's home city may not have been rich, but it didn't really have much crime. She couldn't imagine people kidnapping Pokemon like that, especially when they had families to take care of. "Well, that's terrible!" Alex barked, his voice toned with a mix of anger and disbelief. "Who could ever even think about doing something like that?"

Lithalia's worried expression returned as she slowly reached out to gently pat the young Ralts in an attempt to soothe its sadness. "Bad men? What'd they look like? Which way did they go?" she hurriedly inquired, still very taken aback by the thought of humans ever doing such a thing. Then, quickly recomposing herself, she said with a reassuring smile, "I'm sure we can track them down and get your parents back."

Blaedyn gave an enthusiastic ruff. ~Yeah, we'll teach those baddies a lesson no matter what!~

[Birdybot]

Ralts looked a little happier. They were going to help it! The nice trainer would help it get it's parents back from the nasty men. That was so great! Fantastic! The Psychic type would be only too happy to answer Lith's questions. After all, if it didn't, they wouldn't be able to find it's parents. Right... what did they look like and where did they go. That was easy enough, it supposed. But which way did they go? Ralts had seen them head off, but it didn't know much after that.

~Well, there were three of them. They all wore black clothes, and the shirts had a big letter on the back. I can't read, but it looked like this-~[/color] Ralts said, tracing a very wobbly letter 'T' in the dirt. T for... Team Tsuasa? Ralts went on. ~And they went in that direction!~[/color] it told Lith, pointing. It began to walk in that direction, checking that Lith was following every now and then.

At one point, a black thread snagged on a bush and a footprint and a few brocken twigs, along with a line in the fallen leaves where something could have been dragged were seen heading off away from the direction Lith and friends were heading.[/size]

[Zorrel]

Blaedyn's small, pointed ears twitched slightly. He'd thought he heard something, like some twigs breaking. He proceded to sniff the air and take a look around; but there was nothing to be seen. It was probably just the wind, he thought, as he turned his attention back to the distressed Ralts.

Lithalia watched as Ralts scribbled in the ground. ''Black clothes with a...T on their backs?'' Lithalia echoed. She brought her hand to her chin and thought hard about who these guys could possibly be. "I'm not completely sure I've ever seen anyone like that,'' she finally concluded.

"Maybe they're part of one of those evil corporations," Alexucard chimed in. "Remember, we used to hear about them off in other regions when we were still at the school."

''Oh, yeah, you could be right! Ohhhh, I always hated reading about all the evil and bad and wrong stuff they did!'' Lith's cheeks puffed out a bit in anger; with her childish face, this somewhat gave her the appearance of a frustrated child in a temper tantrum. "We'll have to find them first, though," she said as she stood up. Scooping Blaedyn in her arms, she turned to Ralts. "Alright, lead the way, Ralts," she exclaimed with a smile. As Lith started following the young psychic Pokemon with Alex padding by her side, Blaedyn couldn't help but look back to the spot where he could have sworn he'd heard something.

[Birdybot]

At the spot which Blaedyn had heard something, a pair of sinister red eyes shone. Perhaps he had heard something, after all. But what? The eyes looked pretty evil. However, they moved into the open, revealing them to belong to a little Rattata, scampering about happily. Hm, maybe nothing evil was there after all. Perhaps the men had gone off somewhere. Yes, that seemed about right.

"Hehe, this'll make the Boss a ve-ry happy man!" a voice said, clearly so happy it was over the moon.
"Yeah! Happy enough to give us a promotion! Or maybe a Pokémon! Or both! Oh, Bagon, here I come!"[/color] a second voice sounded, equally excited.
"Shh, J! Listen." the first voice said, sounding a little scared. They could hear Lith.
"Paul, I hear it. Probably just a Bidoof."[/color] J sighed.
"Yeah, uh, Bidoof. Come on." Paul agreed nervously. These men were up to something. Perhaps these were who you were looking for.[/size]

[Zorrel]

But Paul's doubts were right; that sound was definitely no Bidoof. Lithalia, along with her small party, was getting close enough to hear the group that supposedly made off with Ralts' parents. Blaedyn gave a low warning ruff; he'd heard something again, and this time he knew he wasn't going crazy. ~Someone's up there.~ he growled, keeping his voice low.

The group stopped at Blaedyn's warning after Alex had translated. "People up ahead, eh? We must be getting close then," Alex concluded quietly.

Lithalia nodded in agreement. "Yeah," she whispered with a stern, serious look on her face. "We should sneak up silently; we don't wanna alert them right away." She motioned for the others to keep behind the trees and bushes as they creeped up, hidden, behind the suspicious men as they continued walking unaware of Lith's presence. Still being completely silent, they were getting closer and closer. Almost close enough to jump them, and...then Lithalia tripped over a most inconveniently placed rock. As clumsy as is she is, however, it wasn't too surprising. She let out a loud 'unf' as she fell flat on her face. Blaedyn lay on his back right to the side of her, a bit dazed from the landing. Alexucard rolled his eyes while he stepped out of the bushes and to his partner's sides before giving a low growl to the men clad in black in front of them.

[Birdybot]

The men, Paul and J, gasped, looking at Alex like deer in the headlights. One of them was tall, the other an average size. From their voices as they stuttered and gulped, Paul was the tall one. Paul's daemon was a Mightyena, and J's daemon, unfittingly enough, was a Happiny. Beside them was a cage containing a Gardevoir and a Gallade. They looked horribly weak and their faces lit up as Ralts moved up beside Alex.

Paul and J exchanged glances. "Uh, girl, why don't you run along and forget all about this?" Paul said nervously.
"Yeah, so, er, we don't have to hurt you."[/color] J said, sounding just a little more confident.
Paul nodded. "'Cos we will." he finished. They nodded to each other, then released a Pokéball each. One contained a Poochyena, the other a Zubat.

Ralts looked to Lith. ~Can you fight them off? If you need my help, I might be able to fight one of them.~[/color] it told her.[/size]

[Zorrel]

Lith gave a low groan as she got up; that fall to the face had hurt. She quickly shook it off, however, once she faced the two men who'd definitely taken Ralts' parents. She gasped at the sight of the Gardevoir and Gallade who laid in the cage. Then her expression changed to that of anger when she turned to bad guys who'd done this to them. "No way am I forgetting about this!" she yelled. "You'll never get away with what you've done to Ralts' parents, I'll definitely make sure of that!"

But then Lith realized that both her current Pokemon still needed healing, as they'd been weakened by the last battle they had. And, unfortunately, her face clearly showed her distress; the girl had no poker face. Then she heard what Ralts had said. Blaedyn can still fight, but Rikio's probably too weak, she thought. Maybe Ralts helping wasn't such a bad idea. She gave a sharp nod to the young phychic type beside her. "If you could help Blaedyn out, that'd be great," she said as she gave a relieved smile. "How about you try going after that Zubat there, while Blaedyn takes on the Poochyena?"

"Sounds like a good plan to me, especially since psychic has no effect on dark types," Alex commented. Then a smirk came across his face as he added, "Plus, these guys look like total pushovers; they're so nervous! This'll be a piece of cake."

Lith copied Alex's smirk while she nodded in agreement. "We'll have your parents back in no time now, Ralts," she assured. Then, focusing her attention to the battle, she shouted, "Alright, Blaedyn! Use a Quick Attack on that Poochyena!"

Blaedyn had shaken off his daze and listened to the plan his partners had concocted. ~Right,~ he nodded. His powerful paws kicked off the ground, pushing him into a strong-looking Quick Attack as he ran with increasing speed at the Poochyena.

[Birdybot]

The Grunts narrowed their eyes and gave Lith menacing grins. Admittedly, they weren't exactly menacing, but they were trying to be. They watched as Blaedyn and Ralts faced Poochyena and Zubat. So, this trainer was teaming up with a wild Pokémon. How silly. Everyone knew wild Pokémon were too dumb to fight right. Then again, Zubat had a weakness to Psychic types... oh, well. "Zubat, Leech Life!" called Paul. "Poochyena, use, er, Tackle!"[/color] J said, not sounding as if he completely knew his Pokémon.

Poochyena tried to move out the way of Blaedyn's Quick Attack, but she wasn't fast enough. The Riolu struck her, hard, on the side. The puppy was pushed a few inches along, and staggered, whining. That done, she turned her head to Blaedyn, snarling furiously. This wasn't an attack or anything, she was just expressing her emotions. Still snarling, her powerful back legs kicked the ground, launching her into a speedy Tackle.

Zubat waited for Ralts to make it's move; Leech Life would be much more helpful if it had endured an attack first. The little scared dome-headed Pokémon was fighting it's first battle, and was fairly scared. The Gallade cried out, and it nodded. It needed to do this. For it's parents. It closed it's eyes, and gained a faint glow. So did Zubat. This was a Confusion attack, and, thanks to Zubat's weakness, it dealt the bat a lot of damage. This was recovered through a stinging Leech Life, but not entirely, of course.[/size]

[Zorrel]

Blaedyn smirked as he landed the attack; they're even easier than they look, he thought. When he saw the Poochyena growl and snarl at him, he blew his tongue at her in a raspberry as he taunted her back. But then when he opened his eyes again, he saw she was coming right at him. Since it was too late to dodge, the young Riolu crossed his arms over his face to brace for the attack. But then, an odd whitish, swirling shield-like covering appeared around him; he'd used Counter! Since it was a new attack he'd just learned, however, Blaedyn still received a bit of damage from the oncoming Poochyena and was pushed back a bit. "Woah, Blaedyn, what was that?" Lithalia exclaimed, watching the battle with a confused and somewhat astonished expression.

Alexucard stepped up to answer her question. "That was a Counter, Lith. He must've just learned it recently," he replied excitedly; he was happy to see Blaedyn learning.

"Oh, cool!" the young trainer enthused. "More attacks means you're growing, right Blaedyn?" she giggled as a wide grin came across her face. Then her eyes turned back to the battle; she needed to beat these guys, and quick. She glanced over to see how Ralts was doing, and winced when she saw the Leech Life sap some of her energy away. "Hang in there, Ralts!" she encouraged the young psychic type. "If you need some healing, you can always come back to me - I have some Potions in my bag."

//ooc: I hope I described Counter right xD;

[Birdybot]

ooc// I'm not entirely sure if that's what happens, but let'd go with that anyway. I think that once the Pokémon has been hit, it attacks the opponent somehow with double the damage it felt.

ic// The Grunts were surprised to see that their opponent was surprised that their Pokémon knew the move Counter. Well, in their opinion, if Lith and her team thought they, J and Paul, were pushovers, yet Lith didn't know her own Pokémon's moveset, then Lith ought to rethink that. Well, she wasn't really one hundred percent right that the Grunts were extremely easy to beat. After all, they had trained to get this far, and Poochyena and Zubat were at a perfectly respectable level. Level seven, to be truthfull. "Tackle again!" called Paul. "Zubat, Supersonic!"[/color] yelled J.

Poochyena was hurt by the Counter. It was painful in an oddly familiar way. The pain was as if she had been hit by her own Tackle, except it hurt a little more, but not too much more because Blaedyn hadn't felt much damage himself. Poochyena whined, before instantly taking action with her trainer's command. The puppy Pokémon lowered her head and charged faster than she had last time to make for a stronger Tackle.

Ralts nodded to Lith, and then looked even more determined. It had only been one attack- it wasn't feeling weak at all. In fact, Ralts felt great. It had laid down an attack and recieved little damage in return. However, this Supersonic would make attacking extremely difficult. It ran out the way just in time, then used another Confusion on Zubat. The bat Pokémon cried out in pain.[/size]