[IC] Pokemon: The Shadow of Nemesis

[Rune_Alchemist]

~Abigail Blanchett~

By the time the group had reached the edge of town, the sun was already starting its descent. If Abigail had to guess, it was around three or four 'oclock. Well, better late than never as some people said. She'd be lying if she had said she had been dreaming about this day for a long time. Unlike other trainers, she made the decision to become one on a whim, after finishing trainers school. Really, she had always thought she was gonna follow in her fathers footsteps and become an Investigator, or at least a policewoman. A trainer? She had never actually considered...

She had mixed feelings about going on a journey, but for the others, she just but on her usual smug and confident self. Honestly...she had her reservations. Yeah, the danger and adventure sounded fun. As did becoming the strongest trainer in the region, that was her goal after all. And she was going to do that too, right? She would do this, and succeed just like she had at everything else before this, and prove that she was good enough to get what she wanted.

....hah, who was she kidding?

This wasn't the first time in her life she wasn't sure about something. At least though, she had learn to hide her misgivings and second guesses well enough.

"Hah...well, you've come this far..."

“Abigail, wait up!”

Melody's voice caught her attention, immediately silencing her and any negative misgivings she may have been having.

“Aren’t you excited? Our Pokemon journeys are starting, and you’re on your way to being the best trainer in the region, huh? I’m going to challenge the gyms too. I mean, I probably won’t be as good as you, but I’ll do my best.”

Well, someone sure of themselves...

“Mareep’s gonna help me, too. We’re going to be an awesome team, just you wait!”

Abigail visibly scoffed at the idea of them being a 'team'. She had no intentions of being a 'team' with anyone. The only reason she was even travelling with this obviously delusional girl was that she was being forced to. Still, perhaps Melody could be useful in some way. She'd make a pretty good sparring partner, at least hopefully. She seemed to be confident in her skills.

"Hmph." She said, giving her hair a little flip. "I don't recall us ever being partners." She replied a bit harshly, giving Melody a long look. "But hey, you watch my back out there and I'll watch yours, alright?" That was about as 'friendly' as she planned on being with these other trainers.

With that, she pushed past Avery who was standing there like an idiot. Well, whatever. Not her problem. She had her own things to worry about.

With a confident smile, she took her first step onto Route 29 right after the other trianers. Any immediate misgivings she had been having disappearing as a feeling of overwhelming happiness overcame her. Yeah...she was going to do it. And these other trainers, were not going to slow her down.

~ROUTE 29~

~Abigial Blanchett~

It had been about thirty minutes since the group of seven trainers left town. Abigail had situated herself into taking a non-leadership position, staying near the middle of the group as they traveled. With luck, by this time tomorrow they'd be in Cherrygrove. They had got started a bit late, so they were probably gonna have to camp tonight unless they wanted to travel at night, which was probably a bad idea considering the number of wild pokemon.

Still, that left one question.

Where exactly, were they going? They could go north through dark cave, if the map served right, or continue west to Cherrygrove.

"Alright, so where are we going?" She asked the group. "I say we go north. Blackthorn would be a good first stop." Not to mention she had a particular interest in the pokemon along that route, unlike the ones here that she didn't particularly like so much. Just some weak normal an bug types...

Nidoran, who she still needed a name for, had decided to stray a bit from the beaten path, inspecting all of the trees and shrubbery he could get his little paws on.

[Nightmare Bunny]

~Melody Hemlock~

On second thought… maybe Melody didn’t want a Pidgey after all.

She’d certainly thought she’d wanted one. Pidgeys were cute, after all! But…

You see, here’s the thing. Melody was born and raised in Goldenrod City, where all the Pidgeys were fat, mostly docile, and fairly domesticated. And even then, her mother had been of the opinion that most wild Pokemon were horrible, disgusting creatures-- Melody, therefore, had not had much exposure to the spry, battle-scarred and rather smelly Pidgeys of the wild.

Yeah, maybe she didn't want a Pidgey of her own after all.

The first angry-looking Pidgey to glare menacingly at her was promptly zapped with a Thunder Wave by Tesla, who had not been pleased to be awoken from his nap by the flying-type's cawing. It had then proceeded to tackle the unfortunate paralyzed Pokemon until the poor thing was clearly unconscious.

So Tesla had a bit of a vicious streak when grumpy about being roused from a particularly good nap. Well, then.

The walk had been fairly pleasant so far, actually. They'd been trekking along mostly in silence, so Melody had ended up falling into step with Abigail (obviously). As they walked, Melody found herself daydreaming about her conversation with Abigail after they'd left the lab.

'I'll watch your back and you'll watch mine'? Melody giggled to herself softly. Whether Abigail liked it or not... that did make them a team! And of course she'd be watching Abigail's back!

"Alright, so where are we going?" said Abigail suddenly, breaking the silence. "I say we go north. Blackthorn would be a good first stop."

Blackthorn, huh? Well, if Abigail wanted to go to Blackthorn first, then Melody wanted to be there as well!

“If we’re voting on this,” she said, “Then I’ll throw my vote in for Blackthorn, too.” She smiled, a little embarrassed, and tried to pretend like she had some reason for wanting to go to Blackthorn that wasn’t ‘because Abigail wants to be there’. “I, uh… I want to catch a—” Think, think! What could she catch on the way to Blackthorn? Wait, there was a cave, right? “—a Zubat.”

She resisted the urge to hide her face in her hands. Her mother had always told her that lying wasn’t very lady-like, but when a lady did lie… well, she had to be convincing, right?

Still, a Zubat? Oh, gosh… what was Abigail going to think? A Zubat was even less lady-like than a Pidgey!

She bit her lip, and looked down at her hands. “I think Crobat’s pretty cool,” she tried, blushing bright pink.

Abigail was going to think she was so weird. And— she was actually going to have to try and catch a Zubat now, wasn’t she?

A Pidgey fluttered by, and Tesla —who’d been ambling a little bit ahead of them— zapped it with a very enthusiastic Thunder Wave. Then he started trying to knock it unconscious with a few energetic tackles, yet again. Melody stared: had her Mareep suddenly developed an intense hatred for Pidgeys? Was he holding a grudge from after that first Pidgey woke him up from his nap?

Well, it certainly had taste. Those things were awful. And, well, she wasn’t complaining: this way it would get stronger, right?

[Ogo]

~ROUTE 29~

~Avery Grant~

Not even to the first town, and already their little group had shrunk from eight to seven. The musician, Avery didn’t remember his name, hadn’t joined them. Maybe he had his own plans? Perhaps he wanted to just live out his days in New Bark with his Totodile. Or maybe he was waiting for someone.

Avery walked along the path, humming softly to himself.

In any case, Avery wished the guy good luck. A shame though, it would have been nice to have live music at any point. But when the wind blows, it is not the trees that swim. Wait, Brain, that’s not right. He who jumps softly into the wall, loses all but nothing. There we go! Perfect.

He mentally highfived Brain.

They had been traveling for quite a bit, their little gang. Well...not a BIT bit, but a small bit. A bite-sized bit. Half a bit? Telling time was never the guy’s forte. And despite having a clock built into his Pokegear, well...Avery wasn’t really thinking about it that hard.

Someone asked a question, but Avery didn’t quite hear it. Too busy watching the clouds, he was. But he did catch the next part.

“I say we go north. Blackthorn would be a good first stop.”

Blackthorn?

Avery checked his Pokegear, switching it to the Map function. It was…

Well it was a pretty good walk. Maybe three or four bits. AT LEAST. He could do it though. Legs and Heart wouldn’t be too fond, but they’d deal. Hopefully. He watched the Nidoran checking all of the trees and bushes it passed. Good plan, little guy. Who knows what danger could be hiding around any corner. Why, it could even be…

Avery hopped, spinning around as he did so. He landed facing directly behind him.

Huh.

No evildoers.

Well, that was kind of disappointing. Still, he must remain vigilant! At any moment, he might be called upon to save his new friends from all manner of trouble. It was a hard job, but someone had to do it. Wait, focus Avery. What was he supposed to be focusing on?

Oh! Where to go. Blackthorn? But…

Wait...Blackthorn? But, didn’t Elm say to go to Cherrygrove?

Avery was honestly confused. He could have swore that Elm suggested Cherrygrove, but...well, he had been wrong before. Maybe he did say Blackthorn. Blackthorn. The more he thought about it, the more it sounded right. And Abigail had said it. What reason would she have for changing the destination so abruptly?

Clearly there was none.

So CLEARLY she hadn’t.

Then Melody started talking. She mentioned voting, which Avery didn’t quite get the point of. Then she mentioned Blackthorn.

Well, that cleared that right up.

Elm had said Blackthorn, and Avery had just misheard him. Happens all the time.

“Yep, yep. To Blackthorn!” Avery announced to the group. Or reminded, might have been more appropriate. Surely they all heard Elm more clearly than he had.

The guy was already back to his happy-go-unlucky self. Any signs of his prior...err...meltdown were gone. All save for a touch of redness still in his eyes. Give it a few more hours, and he’d probably forget about it altogether.

Avery continued onward, not waiting for the group to reply. The lad wasn’t exactly used to group dynamics. He made just a little bit, but...

But…

But then something felt...off.

He stopped.

He looked up.

He saw something looking back down.

It was like a...a giant pinecone? It had to be two feet large.

Avery smiled wide.

Jackpot.

Pinecones, surprisingly enough, actually hid some pretty tasty seeds within. Once you got past the shell, it was smooooth sailing.

Although…

Avery couldn’t remember the last time he had seen a pinecone with EYES. No, the closest he’d seen to it was a Pokemon in one of Elm’s old boo-

Oh.

Hey Brain, that’s a Pokemon?

Sure is, Avery.

Think we should try to catch it?

Brain didn’t respond. Well, no news was good news. Avery carefully and slowly removed his pack, opening a pouch on the side. Pokeballs. Probably the only thing he could reliably find in the thing. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out another Pokeball, one rather occupied. The grin across the guy’s face was one for the books, people. He whispered to the ball.

“Heya Blue, wanna help me make a friend?”

He didn’t get a response from Blue either. The good news kept-a-truckin’. He sent out the Phanpy, who looked about, slightly dazed, before turning to Avery with a quizzical look. Avery held up one finger to his lips. Sure, he probably knew that the Pokemon had no way of understanding him, but when one’s in the moment, one goes with the flow. He bent over, scooping up a handful of rocks. He grabbed one in his left hand, inspected it, turned it in his hand...then he launched it. Straight up. Straight towards the Pinecone.

Well…

Straight might be pushing it. Avery missed. Wide.

He threw another. And missed again. So on and so forth, until on his sixth try, Avery nailed the Pinecone.

It fell to the ground with a thud.

So...now he was supposed to throw the Pokeball, right? Well, throwing forward beat throwing up anyday. He quickly reached for the bag, pulling out a vacant home. He planted a quick kiss on it, then threw it, straight and true.

And hit it. Hole in one.

The ball opened, enveloping the Pinecone in a red light, then it was gone. The ball hit the ground, shaking.

Once.

Twice.

Th- Nope.

The ball burst apart, and there stood the Pinecone, upright, erect.

Angry.

It leaped forward, aiming to impale Avery with its small spike. But good ol’ Blue intercepted. He laid into the Pinecone from the side, knocking it off its path. Then the Pinecone seemed to forget about Avery entirely. There was only the little blue elephant, and it must be dealt with. It leapt forward once more, now aiming to make a Blue-kabob.

Blue wasn’t having any of that. It took the Pinecone head on, charging in fearlessly with a tackle of its own. The Pinething’s spike drove into Phanpy a bit, but not enough to pierce its thick hide. Blue used this to his advantage, driving the Pinecone back, slow at first, but picking up speed.

Pinebro was between a rock and a hard place. Quite literally. Blue had forced it into a tree quite violently. It seemed a bit dazed. But not dazed enough. It launched into Blue, catching the wee dude off guard, causing him to stumble back in a roll.

Up until now, Blue had been acting entirely of its own accord, but Avery finally got his head out of his ass and stepped up to the plate.

“BLUE! C’mon, guy, let’s get him. Once more. Like last time!”

Well, apparently the Phanpy got that much. Whether it understood his words, felt his intentions, or just so happened to have interests that lined up, Blue rose to his feet and without delay, charged Pinedude once more, and once more was it pinned against the tree. It uh...wasn’t looking too hot now.

Avery almost threw another ball right then and there, but stopped. Another idea wormed its way into his head, and it sounded fun.

“Blue! FLIPPIT!”

Blue didn’t quite understand. It just waited, holding PineFranco against the tree...but then out of sheer coincidence, raised it’s head vigorously, sending Pineissimo into the air, soaring towards Avery. He quickly bent, scooping up a Pokeball. But…

It was too late to throw the thing. Pineadalia was already on him. So he instinctively rose his arms out to block the impact. Pineco hit the ball, and the ball opened. In the next moment, it was gone, and the ball in Avery’s hands was shaking.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

A soft click came from the ball.

A so-

Oh. He did it. Avery laughed his Averylaugh, and smooched the Pokeball. It worked!

A half-bit into his journey, and Avery was now the proud trainer of two Pokemon! One of which he caught all on his own.

Blue the Phanpy and…

and…

Uh…

…

Green. Green the Pine Thing.

Yes.

Satisfied, Avery almost continued on his way, but stopped suddenly. Brain was laughing at him. Silly Avery, Elm said to stick together. He smiled. He was practically giddy. He turned, and waited for his buddies to catch up with him.

And his new buddy.

[XxFellsingxX]

~ROUTE 29~

- Peggy Atkinson -

As they made their way onto Route 29 and along the path, it was Abigail who broke the silence first. "Alright, so where are we going?" she asked the group. "I say we go north. Blackthorn would be a good first stop." Well, at least she was asking first, but Peggy couldn't help but immediately be irritated with the way she said that. Peggy herself wanted to head to Cherrygrove, mainly to see her mother and tell her that she was alright, maybe show off her Pokemon, but also because she knew that the Pokemon northwards would likely be stronger and higher leveled, which they weren't prepared for.

She was about to open her mouth to speak when Melody offered her two cents. “If we’re voting on this, then I’ll throw my vote in for Blackthorn, too," the pink-haired girl said. Peggy then noticed Melody blush slightly. “I, uh… I want to catch a... a Zubat,” Melody continued, before hastily adding, “I think Crobat’s pretty cool." Her face was quickly becoming as pink as her hair.

Even Peggy wasn't entirely convinced by that excuse, but now that Melody has voiced her opinion, she suddenly wondered if everyone else wanted to go Blackthorn and if she said she wanted to go Cherrygrove, they would become irritated with her, and might make fun of her once they found out her reasons. Besides, who would agree with someone who had a panic attack for seemingly no reason?

Before she could figure out what to do, she saw something fall from a nearby tree, landing near Avery. A large pinecone, or so it seemed at first. Avery approached it, looking like he was going to pick it up when...

... it opened its eyes.

Peggy gave a jump of fright, and it was only after a moment that she realised it was a Pokemon and she forced her body to relax. She then proceeded to watch as Avery sent out his Phanphy, seemingly determined to catch it. She watched the two Pokemon fight for a bit, Avery using a Pokeball on it only for it burst out, angrier than before. After more struggling and a second Pokeball, the Pineco was caught, and Avery picked it up, giving the Pokeball a smooch.

Peggy was amazed, as this was the first time she had seen someone catch a Pokemon, and she was about to talk over to Avery and congratulate him for his success when something came scurrying out of the grass and lunged right at Peggy, grabbing for her backpack. Peggy gave a yelp of fright as she felt tiny claws digging into the back of her head. Instinctively, she started flailing around, trying to shake the creature off. While she was frantically dancing about, Houndour's Pokeball fell from her pocket, hitting the ground and opening, letting the dog-like Pokemon out.

As if waking from a deep sleep, Houndour stood there for a moment in a daze, gazing at its surroundings with half-open eyes, seemingly confused. Then its eyes fixed on the Pokemon on its trainer's back. Snarling, it lunged forward. However, its movement was sluggish, almost as if it were limping.

It was still paralysed from Tesla's earlier Thunder Wave.

By the time it had pounced, the Sentret had already leaped off Peggy's back and onto the ground, where it now stood on all fours, watching as Houndour bounced on Peggy and send the two of them tumbling to the ground. Peggy now lay sprawled out on the ground, her Houndour lying on the stomach.

"Uurrrrgh..." Peggy gave a loud grunt as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, having to gently nudge Houndour off herself as she did so. She looked down at her Pokemon, suddenly worried for Houndour's safety and reached a hand out, only to receive a sharp nip from her Pokemon. "Ow..." Peggy muttered miserably, feeling a small trickle of blood drip from the bite in her hand. She then gave it a sharp glare, noticing now, as it lay on its back, that it was in fact a female. Well, at least that mystery was solved.

She was about to get up when she noticed that something was... missing. It took her a moment to figure what it was, to realise that her head felt light. She put her hands up to her head.

Her hat.

She looked around, eyes frantically searching for it. Due to its colour, it took a little longer than it should as it blended in with the greenery of the grass and the trees. However, she eventually found it, lying a few feet away. Rolling onto her stomach, Peggy reached out for her hat, making a swipe for it. Just her hand was literally a millimetre away, though, there was a flash of brown and Peggy's hat was suddenly gone.

Peggy raised her head slightly to see the Pokemon who had attacked her, a Sentret, now wearing the hat upon its head.

"H-hey, that's mine!" she exclaimed. The Sentret responded by sticking its tongue out her. Suddenly angry, Peggy made a lunge for the little creature, but it easily dodged out of the way, and Peggy ended up face-planting onto the ground and practically swallowing a mouthful of grass.

Seeing that her trainer was probably too incompetent for this task, Houndour made a slow-motion bound for the Sentret, who proceeded to scurry away and up a nearby tree. Houndour tried to follow it, scraping its claws against the tree bark. However, Houndours are not built for climbing up trees and shee simply fell backwards onto the ground.

Up in the tree, the Sentret merely watching, giving a gruff giggle as it watched the two below get back to their feet.

Peggy's face was practically into a snarl as she got back to her feet, as was Houndour's, and they both glared up the tree at the Sentret. The Sentret then proceeded to start grabbing acorns off of the branches and pelting them down the two.

"Ow!" Peggy exclaimed when one hit her square in the face, only narrowly missing her left eye. She clutched her bruise face with one hand. The Sentret gave a laugh and began shaking its butt at down at the two of them.

Suddenly possessed by a strange feeling of rage, she bent down, grabbed one of the fallen acorns and threw it with surprising power at the Sentret, who, being too distracted, was knocked down and sent hurtling to the ground, landing only a foot away...

... and Houndour was waiting.

The dog Pokemon pounced on the Sentret and started madly clawing and biting at the Sentret, who, once it had recovered, started clawing and biting back with equal ferocity, and soon the two were sent tumbling over the ground in furious ball of fur, teeth and claws. During this scuffle, Peggy's hat was sent flying to the ground, and Peggy quickly retrieved it, dusting it off before replacing it back on her head, giving a small sigh of relief. She then turned her attention back to the fight.

In only a couple of seconds while she had been getting her hat, Sentret had obviously turned the tables on Houndour, as the dog Pokemon was now lying on the ground, with Sentret standing over her, teeth bared as it readied to deliver what could have been a final blow.

Peggy grabbed for one of the spare Pokeballs in her pocket and tossed it at Sentret. It hit, and the rodent Pokemon was turned into energy and swallowed up by the ball. It lay there was a few seconds, rocking one, twice, three times... Peggy crossed her fingers...

... before the Sentret leaped out of the ball, just as Avery's Pineco done on his first attempt to catch it. Sentret was now standing on all fours, glaring angrily in Peggy's direction. It obviously did not appreciate her attempt to catch it. It charged at, leaping off the ground when only a few feet away and made an epic lunge, causing Peggy to yelp out in fear. She flinched, expecting to feel the creature's claws on her skin any moment.

However, Houndour, still lying on the ground, lifted her head and let lose a string of small flames - an Ember attack - and was able to hit the Sentret in mid-jump, knocking it out of the air and sending it down to the ground. After a minute, Peggy dared herself to look and saw the Sentret lying on the ground at her feet. She expected it to get up, but instead it just lay there, twitching slightly, parts of its fur singed. Somehow, through sheer luck, Houndour had successfully manage to inflict burn on the Sentret.

Taking this chance, Peggy got out a second spare Pokeball and tossed it at Sentret. The ferret Pokemon was once again swallowed up by the Pokeball and began rocking, once, twice, three times...

'Come on, come on,' Peggy thought, noting taking her eyes off the Pokeball. After a tense second, it stopped rocking, and a faint glow appeared on the button on the front.

Peggy let out a breath she hadn't even realised she had been holding. She then walked slowly over to it, almost cautiously, before picking up ball. She held it in front of her, just staring at it for a second.

Then she gave a loud squeal. "I caught a Pokemon!" she exclaimed, holding the Pokeball over her head. It was then Peggy heard a small growl and she looked down to see Houndour weakling limping over to her. "O-okay, we caught it," Peggy corrected. She then crouched down. "T-thanks for s-saving me, b-bbby the way," she stammered, smiling at the dog Pokemon. Houndour simply lifted her shoulder up in a shrug, giving a little grunt. "You look pretty injured," Peggy said. She took out a potion and a paralyze heal from her bag and applied the medicine to Houndour's wounds. Surprisingly, Peggy treated her Pokemon and rubbed the medicine in her wounds, Houndour didn't try to bite her, though Houndour did hiss slightly from the sting.

Once Houndour was treated and her wounds seemed to clear up, energy returning to her body, Peggy gave a smile. "You feeling better now, Jasper?" she said. Houndour gave her trainer a quizzical look. Peggy laughed. "Y-yeah, I've d-decided that'll be your name now," she said. "Like the gemstone. Y-you're kind of j-jasper coloured." Peggy then looked questioningly at the Houndour. "You like it?"

The Houndour paused thoughtfully for a second. Then she gave another shrug, as if it say she didn't mind. Peggy smiled slightly at this.

"Jasper it is then," she said, before patting Jasper on the head slightly. Jasper didn't look all that happy with being petted, but at least she didn't bite Peggy. Peggy then got back up to her full height and returned back to the group. "L-look guys!" she said, holding out the Pokeball containg Sentret. "I c-caught a Pokemon!"

[Rune_Alchemist]

~ROUTE 29~

~Abigail Blanchett~

“I, uh… I want to catch..a Zubat.”

A zubat? Those annoying little things? Well, she had to give Melody credit again. Crobat was a pretty cool pokemon. Not something she'd use herself, at least once she got her hands on some steel or fighting types, but it'd be a good pokemon to have nonetheless.

“I think Crobat’s pretty cool,”

Maybe Melody was a lot smarter than she was letting on.

huh.

"Well, Crobat is a pretty frais pokemon." She said to Melody. "Not something I'd use myself. I like the more robuste types. Like Skarmory or Nidoking, like what Nidoran is going to be soon enough." She commented, just as Avery seemed to have discovered a pokemon himself. A Pineco? Pffft. Hahahaha. What a uselessly dull pokemon. Bug types were too soft and squishy for her tastes. At least Forretress was part steel type. That made it a bit more likable, at least.

He wanted a Pineco, that was his choice. He wanted a soft squishy pokemon, that was his business. She yawned, as she watched the battle. That Phanphy was totally boring to watch. Oh well, at least it was brief and he had caught said Pineco rather easily. Well, whatever floated his boat or whatever they say.

Let's see...maybe she should get training too. Nidoran - she was still thinking of a suitable name - could use some training. The moves he knew were only leer and Peck, if memory served so dealing with some bug types would be easy enough. Some very good experience, if she could find some...

She took a look around, intending to use her Nidoran to find some pokemon to challenge for some experience, but it seemed the little guy had wondered off somewhere. She was going to really have to keep a close eye on that guy, wasn't she? Where did he run off too?...

"L-look guys! I c-caught a Pokemon!"

Peggy's voice momentarily distracted her. Apparently she had missed the whole battle with the Sentret while she was focusing on trying to decide on what she should do. Well, whatever. She had bigger concerns than that timid girl having beginners luck in catching a pokemon she perceived to be pretty useless. Where had that little troublemaker of a Nidoran get too?

And, right at that moment, the little pokemon came scurrying from out of the forest. It was running as fast as it could, right towards Abigail. Was it...covered in some sort of web? She didn't have much time to contemplate it. Before she could react, the little Nidoran leaped towards her, burying its face in her chest as she caught it.

"What happened to you?" She said, holding it up like one might hold a cat. "You look absolutely terrified." The Nidoran simply turned its head tentatively towards the bushes it had just jumped from as Abigail removed some of the webbing that had gotten stuck between his spikes. Well, whatever it was seemed to have not followed the little pokemon.

"Well, whatever happened, I think I have a suitable name for you now!" She said, smiling brightly at the pokemon. "How does Tyrian sound? Its the name of an old color of purple. I think it suits you nicely!" Tyrian, seemed to have completely forgotten about whatever had spooked it now, and instead seemed to contemplate the name it had just been given. It didn't take him long to decide that he liked the name, by giving a small little squeal as she sat the small pokemon back down.

"Well, then its decided! You're Tyrian from now on." Well, that was good! Now, to see if she could get some training in before the others scared off all the pokemon.

It was then, she felt something drop onto her head. Oh hell no, who was touching her hair she had taken so much time to perfect!? Turned around to face the other trainers, but no one was close enough to be touching her hair, and their pokemon were still in their balls. Well then...what was-

And then it moved.

She visibly froze.

Something crawled down onto her face...and she was greeted with a face full of green bug.

And the next second, a loud, ear-shattering squeal filled the forest.

Now, she wasn't afraid of spiders. In fact, she rather liked the pokemon known as Galvantula, but being this close to her face? And being the most hideous shade of green? That had probably just messed up her hair? Yeah, that was worth a squeal.

"Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!" She reached up, and grabbed the spider pokemon, intending to slam it to the ground. Instead though, when she went to slam it, the spider ended up clinging for dear life onto her arm. After failing to fling it off of her, she steadied herself and gave the bug the most evil look someone could possibly give something. She didn't know for sure, but she was fairly certain her hair had been messed up in some fashion by the evil little bug...and, was that a smirk on its beady little face? Oh hell no.

"Y-you like to live dangerously, don't you bug?" She snickered, almost sounding half-crazed. In response, the Spinarak simply stared up at the human, before promptly shooting its sticky web all over her face and hair, jumping off her arm, and scurrying back into the forest. For a moment, it looked like Abigail was in shock as she stood there.

That bug.

It didn't.

It just.

That was going to take forever to wash out!

...she...she was pissed.

"Get back here you dumbass bug!" She shouted after the Spinarak, running after it and scooping up Tyrian in her arm, who seemed to protest lightly at the notion of going anywhere near those bushes again. "I'm gonna feed you to the first Hoothoot I see out here!"

[Nightmare Bunny]

~Melody Hemlock~

Finishing up his latest opponent (seriously, what exactly did that Mareep have against Pidgeys?), Tesla ambled back to Melody, butting her shin with his head until she picked him up, somewhat distractedly. Of course she was distracted, though: Abigail was talking to her!

"Well, Crobat is a pretty frais pokemon,” said Abigail. "Not something I'd use myself. I like the more robuste types. Like Skarmory or Nidoking, like what Nidoran is going to be soon enough."

Her best friend yawned, looking scornfully at Avery and his newly caught Pineco. Well, understandable-- Melody didn’t really like bug types too much herself: they were altogether too scuttley and slimy, for her tastes. Besides, her mother had always told her that bug types were the most disgusting of all Pokemon.

Still, Avery seemed happy. He was even kissing the Pokeball! Melody giggled. “Congrats, Avery!” she said, waving at him.

But… "frais"? For a moment, Abigail’s French left Melody feeling a little confused. What did that mean? Like… fresh? It certainly sounded like it. But seriously-- what was that supposed to mean?

Still, the other girl’s approval left Melody feeling light and kind of giddy. She beamed. Maybe that had been a good excuse after all! And now she really was looking forward to catching a Zubat!

Also, now she knew what type of Pokemon Abigail liked. “Robust” types, huh? Of course Abigail liked powerful, strong Pokemon! Melody liked cute Pokemon herself, but obviously Abigail was able to look above insignificant things like appearance!

“You think so?” she said happily. She would have said more, but just then, Peggy returned to the group, holding out a Pokeball proudly.

"L-look guys! I c-caught a Pokemon!”

Melody was already in a good mood, but, hey! Now Peggy seemed happy too! “Congratulations to you too, Peggy!” she said. “What type of Pokemon is it?”

Maybe she should try to catch a Pokemon here, too? But she hadn’t seen anything she was too interested in: she’d thought she might like to catch a Pidgey, but… uh. She didn’t think she was very fond of bird Pokemon after all.

And then she heard a piercingly loud squeal, and a lot of cursing. It only took her a split-second to register it as Abigail’s voice, and she whirled around, hand twitching towards the knife in her pocket. Was Abigail in danger?!

Then she took in the reality of the scene before her. There was a bug scurrying away, and Abigail… was covered in sticky webbing. Melody winced in sympathy. Oooh, that was awful. She’d offer to lend Abigail her favorite bottle of shampoo, later.

The Spinarak started scuttling away, back into the forest.

"Get back here you dumbass bug!” Abigail shouted, scooping up her Nidoran and giving chase. "I'm gonna feed you to the first Hoothoot I see out here!"

Wait. Giving… chase?

Oh, hell no. There was no way Melody was letting her new best friend run off into the trees alone. The pair rule existed for a reason!

“Abigail, wait!” she shouted, breaking into a run. Still, the girl seemed rather intent on her chase.

Her feet pounded against the leaf-covered ground, and Melody winced as a strand of her pink hair got caught on a branch. Ouch. Yeah, she had to start tying that up, didn’t she? But she kept running anyway. She had to keep up with Abigail!

It was because of this that she nearly collided with the other girl when they both came to a stop, only managing to skid to a halt just in time to prevent herself from bowling them both over. And--

Hoooooly mother of Arceus. That was… a lot of Spinaraks.

The Spinaraks seemed to regard the two girls with their beady black eyes. There was webbing everywhere, and even as Melody stared in horror, the Spinaraks converged behind them too. They were surrounded, by at least a hundred horrible little green bug Pokemon.

Hadn’t she seen a horror movie about a tourist who’d wandered into a Spinarak nest, once?

Melody didn’t waste a second. She dropped Telsa to the ground and grabbed Abigail’s hand.

“Tesla, Thunder Wave!” she said, and Mareep baa’d obliging, unleashing an electromagnetic wave on the Spinaraks blocking the way that they had come from. The attack bowled them over for the most part, paralyzed and twitching, but there were just so many of them.

She tugged urgently on Abigail’s hand. “There's too many. We have to run!” she said desperately. “Now!”

The other Spinaraks were already starting to approach, scuttling towards them like an endless sea of green. "Thunder Wave again!" she said, and Tesla shocked the next wave of Spinaraks, but... it didn't seem to help too much. The Spinaraks just kept coming, crawling over the bodies of their fallen comrades.

She tried not to show her fear on her face. What if Abigail got hurt? That... Melody couldn't let that happen. Not now, not ever.

She'd protect Abigail. No matter what.

[Noklu]

~Ryley Grisdoe~

Route 29 is normally a very nice route. Some people compliment it for being more peaceful than other Johto locations. Its lush greenery tends to bring out the good thoughts in oneself.

...Unfortunately, their group wasn’t quite normal. Well, it was already down one musician, but that wasn’t the abnormality. It started about 30 minutes after they left New Bark, when Abigail brought up the topic of their destination. She voted for Blackthorn City, with Melody and Avery following suit soon after. Ryley thought they were headed towards Cherrygrove as Elm had suggested, but now it was almost guaranteed they would head towards Blackthorn. Not the Ryley minded, but still. He paused, thinking of their motivations behind the votes. Abgail’s reasons were unclear, Melody wanted a Zubat apparently (which did sound kinda cool), and Avery… Well, Avery was being Avery.

Speaking of Avery, he was the first to try and catch a pokemon. The group had already encountered some wild pokemon, and successfully warded them off. Fern, for her part, did fairly well herself. Tackle was a much more powerful move than given credit. It only took 2 or 3 hits to take out the wild ‘mons. Having recieved a couple of hits, she was resting in her pokeball currently.

Anyways, Avery started throwing rocks at something in a tree, which turned out to be an annoyed Pineco. Avery’s actions were confusing at first, as it seemed he was knocking down a normal pinecone. For those uniformed, Pineco looked like a pinecone, so the misinterpretation was completely justified.

After a failed capture attempt, Avery’s Phanpy, aptly named ‘Blue’, and the wild Pineco started an intense battle. At least, intense for a newer trainer like Ryley. Avery’s commands weren’t the clearest, but Blue seemed to understand most of the meaning. After the Phanpy had thrown the Pineco towards Avery, he caught the Pineco in another pokeball. This time the capture was a success.

However, not a moment later, Peggy was ‘viciously’ assaulted by a ball of fur called a Sentret. Despite Peggy’s Houndour being called out, the furball was able to steal her hat, quite deftly, if Ryley had to say. Though from there, Peggy and her Houndour took the advantage. It took a fall, a couple of bites and scratches, a burn, and two pokeballs, but Peggy eventually captured it.

The fun didn’t end there. Not a minute later, a scream erupted from Abigail. A cute little Spinarak had favored Abigail’s face as a new home. It seemed Abigail wasn’t the ‘landlord’ type of girl, as she tried to throw it away. It jumped off eventually, but not before throwing a web in her face. It was almost comical, the sequence of events. Stifling a laugh was hard, but Abigail’s break in sanity helped vastly. She looked 80% crazy, to put it simply. The bug type running off only made her… no, it worse. It wanted revenge.

That led to the current predicament. Abigail was burning rubber chasing the Spinarak into the forest. May sound harmless enough, but not in this situation. Melody seemed to think this too, and quickly raced after her.

Ryley contemplated leaving them to it for a good second. The optimist in his head told him they’d be fine. The rationalist told him they’d have a tough battle. However, he made a plan of action based around the moralist inside, as well as the want to do something.

“Dammit… This is idiotic...” The muttered swear preceded his acceleration into the forest. Before he entered the thicket, he called out to the others “I’m going to make sure those two don’t hurt themselves”. And with that, he was gone.

It took a bit of trekking Ryley to see where the two had stopped. In the middle of a group of Spinaraks. A cluster. A horde. A shitload of the tiny spiders. Oh Arceus... The first thought that entered Ryley’s mind was how this would be a arachnophobic person’s worst nightmare. His second thought was how the two girls were screwed. His third thought was how he should get the hell out of there as soon as possible. He fought the last thought, but still stood back, not being able to do much to help.

Ryley watched as Melody had Tesla use thunder wave repeatedly on the horde, but it didn’t affect nearly enough to make a big difference in their numbers. However, it succeeded in creating a slight escape route for them. Suddenly, inspiration struck Ryley. There was web on the ground. The Spinarak were on the web. The web was connected. Before he could stop himself, he called out to Melody.

“Use thunder wave on the web!”

Smart plan for Melody to use. Not so smart for Ryley to yell it. A few specks of green popped up near him. Time for him to listen to his third thought! He booked it, with a few Spinarak tailing not to far behind.

[Ogo]

~Avery Grant~

Avery fell, landing flat on his face. The boy had tripped over his own feet. But there was a reason. He had heard Melody yell something at him. But when Avery had turned around to respond to the candy gal, he had caught sight of something leaping at Peggy. When the thing touched her, Avery kicked off, trying to get to her. He wasn’t about to just sit around while a friend became Pokefood.

But…

Well…

Maybe he was just too excited? In any case, he was now spitting dirt from his mouth. It took him a moment to gain his bearings, to figure out what had just happened, but then it hit him and Avery scrambled to his feet.

He managed to get up up just in time to see the now hatless Peggy being pelted by acorns. But the girl’s survivalist instincts must have kicked in, because she launched an acorn into space. Or at least, it might have went, had a poor fluffbutt not gotten in the way. Then her waterdog attacked it! It was a brutal sight to Avery.

Had whatever hit her robbed the girl of her kindness?

But then she had donned her hat once more, and with it, she had become normal once more. Interesting. So the Peggy he had met was only Peggy when the hat was present. Without it, Peggy the survivalist reverted to Peggy, Warrior-Queen hellbent on the savage destruction of all life. A barbarian so ruthless, that her name was only spoken in hushed whispers by drunkards and winos, causing madness and fear to grip the poor souls that had to endure the tales.

Avery made a note to make sure her hat was not trifled with.

The girl threw a Pokeball, capturing the Sentret for but only a moment. Then it emerged, once more, and Peggy cried out as it charged her. Avery quickly closed the distance, mind blank, body reacting to the danger.

But something beat him to it.

Fire enveloped the Sentret, ending its attack. Avery was caught off guard and stopped some yards from the Peggy and the Squirrel, the former having seized the opportunity to toss another Pokeball at the thing.

And it worked.

She cried out in excitement then started soothing Waterpooch. Was Waterpooch the firebug?

Brain, opinion?

Yep. Had to be. Obviously Waterpooch was a Water/Fire type. Not surprising, really. The Survivalist WOULD choose something that would help her in outdoor situations. Fire for warmth or cooking. Water for drinking and cleaning. Avery was in awe of the girl’s foresight. He wasn’t sure what he and Blue could bring to the group.

Fish, maybe? He could get some fish. Hopefully, Blue liked seafood. The poor guy hadn’t caught Brain screaming at him that he had left his pole at home. But details, yeah?

Peggy had returned back to the group announcing her victory.

“I c-caught a Pokemon!”

Right on! That was awesome! Wait, Brain, we need to say that outloud.

“Right on! That was awesome!”

There we go.

…

A sound that shouldn’t be slammed into Avery. His hearing might never be the same. The boy hunkered down, anticipating a painful impact. But there was none.

He looked around and saw Abigail dancing with a spiderbro. Aww, they looked like they were having fun. And just look at that happy face Abigail was wearing. Yay! Abigail had made a new friend too! It even shot some friend string at her.

“I’m gonna feed you to the first Hoothoot I see out here!”

She yelled at it as she chased the little guy, who jumped off her and was now skittering away. Heh. They had just met and were already going to be the best of friends. Seriously, a game of tag within minutes of knowing each other? Avery would have to learn how she did it.

But Melody must have felt left out, because she ran after the girl. Odd. That’s not how tag works. Abigail was IT, Melody. You have to run AWAY from the IT. Ain’t that right, Brain?

But...they had strayed from the main path. They could get lost. Or hurt.

Avery shouted something unintelligible and broke into a sprint after the girls. Peggy, Quietbro, Shortbro, and Awesome Hat would be safe together, so long as they stuck to the path, which was what Avery had attempted to convey. But, well, Tongue was excited too.

However, Quitebro seemed to have the same idea and had launched into action right before Avery. The guy had GUTS!

He bounded into the unknown, after the three, Blue charging right behind him. The little dude had been lazily celebrating his victory, but couldn’t just let Avery leave. He was the provider of Bellyrubs. Bellyrubs were pretty righteous. Right up there with Food and Naps. Such would be the thoughts of Blue, should Blue be able to voice his stream of consciousness. At least it was according to Avery.

But the boy eventually stopped. Before him was Ryley. Then...then there were a ton of spiderbros in front of him. Beyond that was Abigail and Melody. Then even more spiderbros. Yet these spiderbros didn’t look like the first one. They all looked kinda hungry, something Blue and Avery could sympathize with...but no! His friends were not on the menu. Melody’s little fluffybuddy was already unleashing the fury of the heavens upon the green multilegged ones…

Quietbro shouted a command out. Thunder wave on a web? But what about all of the spiders?

“Blue, CHARGE!”

Blue didn’t waste any time. It rushed in, either trampling the arachnids or flipping them out of his way with his trunk. Avery’s hand flashed toward his pocket and he pulled free a Pokeball. He pointed it in front of him and after a moment, out popped Green.

Green was…

Well, he wasn’t exactly thrilled to see Avery again. Less so to see Blue, apparently, but the pissed off pinecone seemed to despise the six-legged horrors even more. Before Avery could speak, it launched into the nearest bug, launching it backwards.

“Keep on keeping on, Green!”

Avery shouted some encouragement then quickly looked around.

Brain was taking a vacation, so there really wasn’t any plans…

So Heart had the reins, and Heart believed in PASSION!

Avery grabbed a thick stick off a low hanging branch, broke it off, then charged into the bugs himself, swinging wildly, connecting with one of the ones that had been chasing Ryley. Homerun! The others however, kept after the lad.

Avery and his posse continued trying to fight off the bugs immediately in front of them but...

But there was only so much that the three could do on this side of things.

Blue and Green ended up attacking the same Spinarak. Poor dude was launched into the air by Blue, and tackled from above by Green. The latter gave Blue a harsh look, but it must have come to terms that for at least the time being, they were on the same side.

He uh...didn’t look too thrilled about it.

[Rune_Alchemist]

~ROUTE 29~

~Abigail Blanchett~

Abigail didn't register Melody's voice calling out to her. She was too busy thinking about the ways she would get back at that spinarak for destroying her hair. The little hideous green colored pokemon was leading her on quite the chase through the forest. She knew somewhere back in her mind this was probably a really, really, bad idea, but she was too busy focused on that bug to really care. She hadn't even noticed where she was, when she had cornered the spider at the base of a tree. It wasn't until Melody nearly ran into her, did she realize quite the predicament she had gotten herself into. She took a good look around the forest.

Dozens of beady little eyes stared at them. There was enough spider webbing here to make new coats out of! This little grove was completely covered in the stuff. This must have been the place Tyrian had ran into earlier, and was the reason he really didn't want to go back into the forest.

Well, this could have gone infinitely better.

She looked down at the spinarak that she had chased, a mischievous little glint in its eyes. Had...that thing lured her here? Heh...well, unfortunately for that dumbass bug, she wasn't about to be spider food.

“Tesla, Thunder Wave!”

That was the right idea, Melody. A grin was forming on Abigails face, as she let go of Tryian, letting him fall to the ground.

“There's too many. We have to run! Now!”

Run? Please, she wasn't going to be running from anything! These bugs would learn there place, and she wasn't about to let that one get away either! She was gonna catch it!

“Use thunder wave on the web!”

When had Ryley got here?

“Keep on keeping on, Green!”

Or Avery for that matter? Hrmph, well, just as long as they didn't get in her way...she was gonna do this.

"Yeah, sorry Mel." She said to the other girl. "I'm not one for running. Besides, this'll be good experience for Tyrian." She continued, trying to find the one Spinarak she wanted in the horde of them. Despite her confidence, it was obvious she was at least a little afraid of the approaching hoard. It was easy enough to tell that smug bastard apart from the others, at least. She could tell his beady little eyes apart from the rest a mile away.

"Tyrian! Use peck!" She commanded Nidoran. "Come on, little guy! Don't let these bugs get the best of us!" Not to mention, these spinarak were probably a lower level than they all were. Top it off with a super effective move, then these guys were hoothoot kibble.

Needless to say, that was just her overconfidence.

Tyrian obeyed, charging at the horde of Spinarak, seeming to share his trainer's bravado. His horn impacted one of the Spinaraks, sending the little bug flying backwards. However, while he was distracted attacking that one, two more used their webbing to slow down Tyrian. Another used poison sting on him. Thankfully, the move wasn't going to do much damage, and he couldn't get poisoned.

"Don't let up Tyrian! Give those bugs a beating!" Tryian obeyed. Thankfully, the thunder waves shot by Tesla was giving them a huge advantage here. Sure, there were a lot of them but as long as they kept fighting, they'd be alright. Now, where was that uppity smug brat of a Spinarak at?...There!

"Tyrian, use peck on that one!" Tyrian rushed towards the one pointed out by Abigail. The Spinarak gave a brief look of fear before trying to scuttle away from the Nidoran. Using the webbing, it pulled itself up into the air, latching onto one of the tree branches and causing Tyrian to embed its horn in the tree. Damn it. It was a surprisingly fast little bug...

"Melody! Hit that one with a thunder wave!" She said, which was definitely more of a command than a suggestion.
Meanwhile, Tyrian pulled his horn out from the tree, and was already scurrying to avoid getting stung again by some of the spinaraks.

[Nightmare Bunny]

~ROUTE 29~

~Melody Hemlock~

“Use thunder wave on the web!” yelled Ryley.

Thunder Wave? On the webbing? Hey, that… did seem pretty smart, actually!

Melody opened her mouth to command Tesla to do just that, and then promptly got distracted by Avery’s voice.

What? It was kind of hard to maintain one’s concentration when surrounded by a HORDE of psychotic spider Pokemon, okay?

“Keep on keeping on, Green!”

Avery seemed to be doing his part, and was doing a pretty good job of beating up one unfortunate Spinarak with both his Pokemon.

What really distracted Melody, however, was--

"Yeah, sorry Mel,” said Abigail. "I'm not one for running. Besides, this'll be good experience for Tyrian."

Melody froze. Tesla, seeming to sense that they weren’t going to be running away after all, started tackling random Spinarak in between Thunder Waves. He was doing pretty well, actually. What Melody was more concerned about, however, was—

“M-M-Mel?” she squeaked. Had… had Abigail given her a nickname? Could this mean— she’d kind of figured, since Abigail was a little prickly, that it would take some time to win the other girl over. But maybe Abigail liked her after all?!

Well, maybe she was okay with fighting it out after all, then. With Abigail by her side… surely, there was no way that they could lose!

She shook herself. No! Now was a bad time to get distracted, even if it was by Abigail… it was a good thing that Tesla seemed to be doing okay on his own, because if he’d been waiting from a command from Melody, well. He’d probably still be waiting.

Of course, he was absolutely covered in webbing, and seemed to be moving a good deal slower, but he hadn’t been poisoned quite yet. Definitely doing more damage to the Spinaraks than they were doing to him, which made Melody rather proud, actually. Had beating up all those Pidgeys paid off?

Oh, wait—- what was it that Ryley had said? Use Thunder Wave on the webbing? Yeah, that definitely sounded like a good plan.

“Thunder Wave on the webbing!” Melody commanded, and Tesla obeyed. The electromagnetic wave hit the webbing on the ground and shot through most of the spiders. Woah. Cool.

"Melody! Hit that one with a thunder wave!" yelled Abigail, and Melody grinned. Abigail was relying on her! She looked up: the Spinarak that Abigail wanted her to hit was the one hanging from the tree, huh?

“Get it, Tesla!” she said. “Thunder Wave!”

Tesla let out a loud, war-like baa and let loose his strongest Thunder Wave yet. The move hit the Spinarak straight on, and it lost its grip on the branch, falling to the ground where Tyrian could get to it.

Well, that was taken care of. And it looked like the vast majority of the Spinarak had been taken care of, right? They were mostly paralyzed, if not unconscious.

Man. Tesla had better be getting some killer experience from this, because they had beaten up a whole lot of spider Pokemon.

As if reading her mind, Tesla baa’d in a disturbingly self-satisfied way. A Spinarak got him in the back with a Poison Sting, and Tesla turned on it, slamming it to the ground with a powerful tackle.

Holy mother of Arceus. Melody watched, slightly shocked.

The sheep was a demon beast, sent from the fiery pits of the Distortion World… AND HE DEMANDED A BLOOD SACRIFICE.

“Um,” she said uncertainly, and then shrugged. What the hell— she’d roll with it. “Mop up the rest of them! Use Tackle!”

Tesla threw himself into the task with plenty of enthusiasm, tackling the nearest Spinarak.

Well, okay then. If it was a blood sacrifice her darling Tesla wanted… then it was a blood sacrifice he’d get.

[XxFellsingxX]

- Peggy Atkinson -

“Congratulations to you too, Peggy!” Melody said as Peggy wandered back to the rest of the group, Sentret's pokeball in hand. “What type of Pokemon is it?” Peggy was about to reply when Avery spoke up.

“Right on! That was awesome!” he said. Peggy felt her heart swell up with pride. She didn't normally like being the centre of attention, but right now, she was quite enjoying the praise she was receiving. She had finally done something right! She'd finally achieved something on her own!

Well, mostly on her own...

She glanced down at Jasper, who was standing by her side, ready to pet the Houndour to show that she didn't take the dog's hard work lightly and very much appreciated her aid. However, just as she was about to, Jasper let out a low growl, causing Peggy to instinctively pull back, still wary of Pokemon and careful that it wouldn't bite her again.

However, after a minute, Peggy suddenly realised that Jasper wasn't growling at her, but at something else. Something...

... up above.

No sooner had Peggy followed Jasper's line of sight that the thing the Pokemon had been growling at dropped from the trees and right on top of Abigail's head, a green, creepy, spidery thing.

Abigail screamed.

Now, while not a usually cruel person - heck, her grandma had once said she didn't possess a mean bone in her body - Peggy couldn't help but feel a somewhat spiteful smirk tease at her lips as she watched Abigail try grab for the creature on her face, all the while shrieking, "Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!" Heck, she was freaking out more than Peggy herself had when Sentret had attacked her, and it felt like some kind of divine justice had been served after Abigail had insulted her.

While Peggy was watching with dark amusement as Abigail tried to remove the Spinarak from her face, Jasper was digging her claws into the dirt as she snarled and barked at the Spinarak, though thankfully, she didn't decide to lunge or attack as she had before.

Eventually, after spraying Abigail's face with web, the Spinarak dropped off of Abigail and scurried off into the woods, Abigail soon giving chase. "Get back here you dumbass bug! I'm gonna feed you to the first Hoothoot I see out here!" Abigail shrieked after it.

Peggy watched her go, heading deeper into the woods. 'Good riddance,' Peggy thought to herself, crossing her arms over her chest. 'I hope you get lost.' However, not long after she thought that, Melody and, soon after, Avery and Ryley, went chasing after Abigail, Pokemon in tow, and she suddenly felt guilty for enjoying Abigail's humiliation earlier. Besides Blake and Alex, who were still standing with her, everyone else had gone to help her.

'Hey, it's not your fault!' a cold voice muttered in Peggy's mind. 'It's not like you threw the Spinarak at her or anything! Anyhow, she deserved it!' But Peggy still couldn't shake off a slight feeling of shame, hugging her arms tightly to her chest as the guilt swirled up within her.

It was then she noticed that Jasper was no longer by her side.

"Huh?" Peggy glanced frantically around her. "J-jasper? Jasper!" Where had that dog gone off to now? She panicked for a second until she caught a glance of the Houndour's tail retreating into the trees after Abigail and the rest had ran off to. "Jasper! Wait, come back!" Peggy raced after her Pokemon, not even taking a moment to stop and think about how bad of an idea this could be.

Soon, she caught up to the Houndour, who was viscously tearing into a singed and blackened Spinarak that she had pinned beneath her front paws. Surely, that wasn't the same Spinarak Abigail ha been chasing?

It was then Peggy noticed her teammates, the ones who had run off. They were battling not one, not two, not even three... but a whole hoard of Spinarak... and seeming to be doing quite well.

Peggy hovered for a bit, uncertain as to whether she should try and help. They seemed to be doing fairly well without her, and Peggy wasn't sure if wanted to get involved in that chaos. After a moment, she made her decision.

"Jasper!" she called. The Houndour, who had been playfully batting around the Spinarak with her paw for the last minute, looked up at her trainer. "Leave it alone. Let's go back to those other two," Peggy continued. "We're not needed here." Jasper looked reluctantly down at the Spinarak. Peggy looked at it also, worried for a moment that Jasper might have killed it. Then, Jasper finally swatted to the side with her paw, and the Spinarak, now free from its captor, stopped playing dead and scurried off. Peggy briefly wondered whether she should try and capture it as it was probably weak enough, but decided against it. She already had a Pokemon from the route who she no doubt would have to spend some time training. Besides, she already used up two Pokeballs capturing Sentret, and only had three left. She'd have to save them until they got to a Pokemart.

Jasper bounded over to Peggy's side, somewhat reluctantly as Peggy could see the urge to fight in the Houndour's eyes. The two then made their way back the way they came and went over to Alex and Blake. Feeling they probably might want to know what happened to the others, she stammered out, "T-they're okay. T-they s-should be b-b-back shortly."

[Rune_Alchemist]

~Abigail Blanchett~

“Get it, Tesla! Thunder Wave!”

Heh, good. The uppity spider was unprepared for the attack, and was hit easily by Tesla. The hideous green spider pokemon fell to the ground, losing its grip on the branch that it had taken refuge on. Reaching into her bag, she found a pokeball and pulled it out. She was gonna catch this smug little thing and teach it a few manners.

"Alright, Tyrian, use Peck again!" With a small growl of confirmation, the Nidoran leaped into action before the paralyzed Spinarak could move. His horn slammed right into the bug, it letting out a pained squeal as it was hit square on its abdomen. Tyrian didn't seem to let up though and pounced on it next, pinning the bug under its paws. It then looked up at Abigail, with a happy grin. For a second, Abigail couldn't tell if he thought this was all a game, or actually fighting seriously...

Well, either way, that Spinarak was as good as hers. With one swift throw after telling Tyrain to move, the pokeball hit the downed Spinarak right in the head, the bug pokemon disappearing into the ball in a flash of light.

One.

Two.

Three...click!

"Ahah! Take that you stupid bug!" She shouted loudly, just now taking a look around the little clearing. Most of the spinarak had either fled, or were passed out on the ground. It seemed the three of them had managed to clear most of them out. Well, that was a good bit of training. With a calm, confident smile, she walked over and picked up the pokeball that contained her new...partner. "Well, that was easy." She commented mostly to herself. She doubted most other new trainers would even attempt something like this. Hah. Cowards, the lot of them.

And that, was when, something that probably should have been expected happened.

Webbing shot from one of the trees, latching itself onto the hand that held the pokeball. Then, came a strong, swift tug that pulled the girl towards it, making her lose her footing in the process. She fell flat on her face, the webbing continuing to pull her until she was at the base of a rather large web-covered tree. An angry hissing noise was heard from somewhere up the tree. Abigail, looked up.

On the tree, was possibly the biggest Ariados in existence. Well, to a teenage girl who was currently staring at the mouth of one, it was freakin huge.

Abigail, audibly gulped. She may have been hard-headed and confident, but she definitely knew when she was certainly outclassed.

"W-well......uhm...hi?" She nervously said. Suddenly, dozens of other tiny little eyes made themselves known from the top of the tree, all looking down at the trainers like a starving Mightyena looked at roadkill. She would have probably said something else, but the Ariados didn't give her a chance. It released the hold it had on the tree, dropping to the ground. Abigail barely had time to shove herself away before it landed on top of her. She scampered to her feet, just before the spider attempted to grab her leg with its jaws.

"Time to go!" She shouted, grabbing the pokeball containing the newly capture spinarak in the process. Tyrian saw the Ariados and bolted the second Abigail started running.

[Ogo]

~Avery Grant~

“Ahah! Take that you stupid bug!”

Avery wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. Sweat was threatening to invade the peaceful Eye Kingdom, and it was up to Sir Augustus Handington III to save the land.

He performed admirably.

Avery, slightly panting, looked around for the next target. Any target. He was in full on Guardian of the Group mode. But alas, the foul beasts seemed to have fled. Or… Avery glanced over at Green who was triumphantly hopping on the body of a poor spiderbro. The pinebro was addicted to the thrill of combat. In the years after their journey, Green would travel the globe, searching far and wide for conflict to join in. It had tasted battle, and demanded more.

Or not. Avery wasn’t sure if the look that Green wore was one of savage triumph, or that of mindless boredom. To be fair, Green wasn’t exactly the most expressive pea in the pod. Brain slapped Avery for the failure of an analogy. Learn to use your words, it would say, should it be able.

He relaxed slightly, letting the stick drop from two hands to just the one. He closed his eyes then threw his head back, enjoying some air. Good. Nobody was in anymore danger. They could just return to the main road and continue on no prob.

Something nudged his leg and Avery looked down. Blue had returned to his side, but the little blue elephant did not look entirely happy. He seemed…

On edge?

Anxious?

...Alert.

Then a hissing sound shattered Avery’s peace. He looked around.

Abigail had been dragged to a nearby tower of webbing. Oh no. It looked like Abigail would have a meeting with Her Royal Highness, the Queen. Or at least, Avery thought it would be called a queen. Maybe spiderbros run a democracy? Then...would the top dawg be a President? Prime Minister? BAH! Spiderbro politics gave him a headache every time.

That hissing again.

Avery followed the webbing to the Big Hoss itself. It was uh...well, BIG.

Then it landed right by Abigail.

Without thinking, Avery rushed forward, his fists tightening around the stick. He gained some distance, readying a swing when Abigail flee past him. Rather quickly, he might add. Which was odd...Abigail was the top trainer in town, right? Why would the top trainer flee? Unless…

Ah! It was Her Royal Majesty. One cannot simply strike royalty. Avery let got of his stick midswing, causing the stick to sail right over the top of the Ariados. Avery spun on his heels and sprinted the same way Abigail had, swiping his Pokeballs from his pockets as he did so and recalling Blue and Green.

It was time to get the hell out of Dodge. Otherwise, the Queen wouldn’t be happy. Or maybe it was the King? He really should find out. It was rude to do otherwise. His Highness would not appreciate being labeled a woman by a commoner. Oh...whatever would Avery do?

And then Avery was back on the main path. He wasn’t sure how that was, or even how long he had been running. All he knew was that he couldn’t enter the Spiderbro Kingdom(Or Queendom) again, unless he brought proper tribute. Bummer.

The lad looked around for a moment, then barely made out the balls of fluff that would be Peggy’s hair. Avery grinned a goofy grin. What if she kept things in that? Avery would, if his hair would allow it. Tragically, it seemed to be rather stubborn about the whole curtain thing. Which worked too. Made taking a nap easy anywhere. Gotta enjoy the little things.

Life was good when you enjoyed the little things.

[Vec]

Blake Winterhawk

Thirty or so minutes had passed since their little group left New Bark and things seemed to be going fine for the most part. They killed time making small talk and chatting about random stuff. Just as it was starting to get late, however, Abigail spoke up, asking about their first destination and also throwing in Blackthorn as her own choice. "Uh oh..." Blake thought.

"If we’re voting on this, I’ll throw my vote in for Blackthorn, too. I, uh… I want to catch a-a Zubat."

As if on cue, Melody spoke. Of course, she instantly favored Abigail's proposal. Although she did pose a reason for her choice, Blake still couldn't understand how one could like anything about Abigail. "I just can't..." he mumbled to himself...

“Yep, yep. To Blackthorn!”

Avery jumped in and cast his own vote. Blake facepalmed his face. Here he was now, facing a situation where he had to somehow explain to everyone why going choosing Blackthorn was wrong. "Well, apart from the fact that I'm not ready to face Dad just yet," they seemed to forget that between them and Blackthorn layed a freaking mountain and a potentially dangerous cave for newbie trainers like them. "Ehm guys, I don-"

Suddenly, all hell broke loose. Avery and Blue, his newly named Phanpy, had started battling it out with a wild Pineco while Peggy and her Houndour were fighting a wild Sentret. Avery finished his battle first, succesfully catching Pineco after one failed attempt. He held the Pokeball gloriously in his hand and unleashed his usual Averylaugh. "Good for him" Blake thought with a smile.

The second in their group to own two pokemon was Peggy, believe it or not. After a hard-fought battle between Sentret and Houndour, which managed to hit Sentret with a well targeted Ember, she managed to capture the little furry Pokemon. She too, as Avery, was overly joyous and she rightfully deserved to be really. Catching a Pokemon on your own had become even more difficult than it had been some years back, judging from his Dad's stories from the time he too was on a journey, travelling around the world.

Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!

Her loud squeal caught Blake's attention who turned, only to see Abigail thrashing her arm around trying to make a Spinarak, which had clawed itself on it and refused to let go, fall off. The whole situation was too sureal for Blake, who burst into laughter. Abigail wasn't so happy though. She seemed pissed actually. When Blake saw the web that Spinarak had shot all over her face, he burst in a second fit of laughter, making even Swinub curious enough for it to come out of its Pokeball and see what was going on. The little fellow materialized right on top of Blake's head, just as he was before he was promptly sent inside his Pokeball a while earlier. It looked around with it's two little beady eyes, trying to figure out what was going on.

After doing her dirty, Spinarak jumped off Abigail and scurried back into the forest. Abigail, pissed as she was, started chasing it, following it into the forest. Then, Melody started chasing after Abigail. Ryley promptly followed the two and Avery, as the Avery he is, charged behind them, along with Blue. Peggy and her Houndour went after them but came back shortly after.

"T-they're okay. T-they s-should be b-b-back shortly."

"...Why do I have the feeling you are not telling the whole story?" He responded to Peggy. After a moment of thought, he decided to follow them. They were supposed to stay together and not stray away from the main group anyway. "To hell with it, I might as well..." Blake thought and hurried towards the direction the others were.

What he saw when he got there was something that didn't even come close to 'okay' as Peggy had told them. Spinaraks laying on the ground around him, some where paralyzed and unable to move, others bore slashes and bite marks on them. "A...It's a genoside..." Blake mumbled as he walked through the fallen Spinarak. He found the group just as Abigail caught one of the poor insects and also saw the huge purple spider, an Ariandos, that had suddenly appeared on one of the trees. "What the heck is that thing?! DO THEY GROW THAT BIG?!" he exclaimed.

Thankfully, Blake was an expert when it came to sticky situations and when he saw everyone running towards him, he didn't just stay idle. "Hey Swinub!" he told the little fella on top of his head, "use Mud Sport!" Blake commanded and the little Pokemon quickly complied with the order. It jumped down and quickly ran between the group and the angry Ariandos & co. Then, Swinub raised his two front feet and brought them down with force, hitting the ground and releasing a wave of mud from it towards the spider Pokemon. The wave coated the ground in front of Swinub with thick, slippery mud, surely making it impossible for the spiders to follow them by land. "That ought to slow them down! Good job Swinub! Return!" Blake told his Pokemon and returned it to its Pokeball before he too started running away as fast as he could.

[Nightmare Bunny]

~ROUTE 29~

~Melody Hemlock~

"Ahah! Take that you stupid bug!" shouted Abigail, sounding very much pleased with herself. She picked up the Pokeball with a smile.

Melody couldn’t help but smile in return. Abigail had caught her first Pokemon! And they’d fought off a veritable army of Spinarak, too. Abigail was so amazing! They'd never have been able to do any of this without her. After all, what kind of newbie trainer ended up battling swarms of wild Pokemon within the first hour of their career as a trainer?

Heck, what kind of newbie trainer battled swarms of wild Pokemon within the first hour of their career as a trainer and won?

Abigail did, of course. Maybe Melody had helped a little, but Abigail was the one who had led their battle and beaten off those Spinarak in the end, wasn't she?

There really was no one quite as amazing as Abigail.

And then a stream of webbing shot out of a tree, attaching itself to Abigail and dragging the other girl away, and Melody froze. There came a loud, angry hiss... and out of the trees descended the most enormous Ariados that she had ever seen in her life.

Not, of course, that Melody had seen many Ariados, being the sheltered city girl that she was. But. Well--

THAT THING WAS FREAKING HUGE.

Also, Melody did not like how close its jaws were to Abigail's leg. She couldn't very well have Tesla attack it: there was no way the Mareep was going to be able to beat that, type advantage or not, so she went for her switchblade instead. Maybe it wouldn't do too much damage, but at least she'd be able to distract it while Abigail ran--

Oh. Never mind. Abigail was already scrambling to her feet and running for the main path, as was Avery.

Well, they clearly had the right idea.

Returning Tesla to his Pokeball with a quick press of a button, Melody span on her heel and ran for it. She sure as hell wasn't going to try and fight that thing if she didn't have to.

It didn't take long for her to catch up to Abigail. Melody's rather small stature meant for less wind resistance, right? But they had to keep running: the Ariados was howling behind them, and judging by the webbing that was getting sprayed everywhere, it was definitely giving chase.

And... hey, was that Blake?

"Use Mudsport! That ought to slow them down!" he yelled to his Swinub. Well, that was certainly smart of him... but Melody sure as hell wasn't sticking around to see what happened next.

"Come on!" she said, grabbing Abigail's hand. Under normal circumstances, this would probably have delighted her (after all, she was holding Abigail's hand), but right now... yeah, she was a little more concerned with running faster than the rampaging spider monster chasing them.

By the time they burst onto the main path, it looked like they had lost the Ariados. All three of them were absolutely covered in webbing, though it didn't look like the other two had noticed yet.

Melody looked down at her web-covered clothes, back up at the others who had missed their little misadventure in the woods... and promptly started giggling.

"Oh Arceus," she choked out between peals of laughter. "We just fought off a horde of Spinarak. And faced certain death by Ariados. Oh Arceus." She was laughing so hard that she had to stop talking, letting go of Abigail's hand to cover her face as she giggled helplessly. "And we're covered in Spinarak webbing. I can help you get it out of your hair, if you want?"

Okay, the laughter was starting to stop, finally. Thank goodness. She looked up to meet Abigail's gaze, and then promptly blushed and had to look away again. "I'm, um... pretty good with fashion. And stuff like that. And, uh... your hair's really pretty, so it would be a shame to let it get ruined by that dumb Ariados, right?"

Then she remembered her manners. Oh, right! She certainly couldn't exclude Avery-- after all, he was just as web-covered as Abigail was. Granted, he wasn't her Best-Friend-Forever, but, well. It was important to be gracious, wasn't it?

"I can help you get the webbing out of your hair, too?" she offered Avery, biting her lip. "It's not really too hard, actually... but Spinarak webbing is kind of like glue, and if you don't get it out right, you might have to cut it out."

[Rune_Alchemist]

~Abigail Blanchett~

"Use Mudsport! That ought to slow them down!"

Blake? About time he showed up. Where had he been anyways? Eh, not that it really mattered. He had used mudsport to try and slow the spinarak, by coating the ground in a thick mud. Well, she wasn't going to stick around to see if that was effective. She stuffed the newly caught spinarak in her pocket, and booked it at full speed out of the forest.

"Come on!"
And suddenly, her hand was being grabbed by Melody. She would have said something, but they had other problems right now. Like the currently pissed Ariados who really seemed to not like Abigail. She'd allow it, for now.

Unfortunately, only the first wave of Spinarak was slowed by the mud. As soon as the rest saw what had happened, the ones behind them took to the trees, using their webbing to move from branch to branch. Their progress had slowed considerably, but they still weren't stopping anytime soon.

When Melody and Abigail finally reached the main road, they stopped momentarily just to catch their breath. Well, that was certainly one way to start an adventure! Sure, it may have almost gotten them killed, but damn it if it wasn't fun! She looked at the others who had decided to stay behind. Needless to say, her opinions of the ones who had stayed behind...didn't improve. Still, when Melody started giggling, Abigail couldn't help but to join her, at least a little.

"Well, that was a perfect start to our little adventure!" She loudly laughed. "Good training for Tyrian too!" Speaking of the little Nidoran, he was currently staying firmly put behind Abigail's legs and not even looking at those woods.

"Oh Arceus We just fought off a horde of Spinarak. And faced certain death by Ariados. Oh Arceus. And we're covered in Spinarak webbing. I can help you get it out of your hair, if you want?"

At the mention of her hair, Abigail tentatively ran a hand through it. Yeah, that was gonna take awhile to wash out. Thankfully, she came prepared. Her hair was her defining feature after all, and she wasn't about to let some dumbass bug ruin it on her first day.

"I'm, um... pretty good with fashion. And stuff like that. And, uh... your hair's really pretty, so it would be a shame to let it get ruined by that dumb Ariados, right?"

Abigail gave a smug little huff at the praise Melody gave her hair. Well, it was true. Not like she needed little miss cotton candy hair to tell her that.

"I can take care of it myself." She said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a very expensive and luxurious bottle of shampoo. "Straight from Kalos." She smugly stated. "I made sure to come prepared. Not to mention the other stuff I have in here specifically for taking care of my hair." She replaced the bottle of Shampoo in her bag before returning to the question at hand. "But yes, I can handle my hair myself. I'm not letting anyone else even touch it." She commented somewhat harshly. Still doing it here, would be a bit of a hassle. For now, she'd simply brush out the webbing. She'd give it the full treatment back whenever she could.

Cherrygrove was seeming like the better travel option now though, since it was closer.....

And then, there was a loud growl from the direction of the forest. Dozens of beady little eyes, and a pair of large ones peered out at them from the woods. The spiders seemed to be deciding on whether or not pursuing these new trainers was worth the risk. After a few tense seconds, the spiders turned and left, one by one returning to their little web covered grove.

"Well, that settles that." She continued, picking up Tyrian and cradling the small pokemon who seemed to have already forgotten about the near death experience. "So, where did we decide we were going? I still think Blackthorn would be best." She asked the group.

[DaDrummer676]

Jackson Grey

So this was it, all of his hard work at Trainer school paid off. Jackson now had his pokemon license in his wallet, one of his soon to be many partners, and a burning ambition to catch a, for the lack of a better words, shit ton of pokemon. Not to mention he now had a group of new friends! Jackson had never had a ton of friends, not too little, but definitely not a shit ton. How much was a shit ton? The boy wondered. Definitely more than ten, but less than one hundred? He would have to study measurements more often, shit prefixes always seemed to throw him off... While the musician was caught in his little day dream, the group moved on without him! Jack wasn't mad of course, it took like, a shit ton of annoyance to get him angry. Just as he stepped out of the door he remembered, his ukulele! If he had forgotten that he would have been miserable! His ukulele had been given to him when he was 10, he wasn't going to lose it so easily! Jackson ran back inside, with Fang grasping desperately to his wheat colored hair. "Hey, hey, easy on the hair bud," the trainer said with a wince. Then comically, Fang patted Jackson's head! As if telling his trainer that his hair would be okay.

After retrieving his instrument, Jack sprinted out the lab, making sure to give his goodbye to the professor. Dammit, the group was out of sight, he must have taken longer than he thought! Sneakers slapped against the trail as Jackson sprinted to catch up with his new friends. They finally came into view, he wasn't too far behind. He was just about to call out to them when a growl came from his right. Next thing he knew he was tackled!

Dazed and confused, Jack looked up to see an orange furred, dog like pokemon. The pokemon growled, and was just about to administer a bite when Fang came to the rescue. The little guy had not enjoyed being flung from atop of his friend's head.

Fang tackled the Growlithe with such ferocity that they both smacked into a tree on the other side of the trail. Having recovered, with a sore stomach, Jackson staggered to his feet. He watched as the Growlithe stood up to Fang, with no fear in its eyes. It was quite dramatic actually, like the whole battle was a western stand off. Fang looked at Jackson, as if asking for permission. Jackson, already knew that he wanted to capture the Growlithe, nodded. Fang shot towards the Growlithe in an attempt to tackle it with the force of a speeding bullet, but failed miserably.

The duo's canine opponent danced out of the way with ease and barked in an almost taunting way. Then in the blink of an eye it dashed forward and bit Fang. How ironic, the pokemon with the strongest jaws just got bit, and it seemed to be hurting a lot. Deciding he had had enough, Jackson came for the Growlithe. The canine pokemon jumped fearlessly at the bigger human, jaws wide. Jackson, acting on instinct, kicked his foot out. Already knowing it was too late to bring his foot back, Jackson winced as he literally punted the Growlithe. "Wait-" the boy sputtered, as if that would reverse what he had done. The poor pokemon flew through the air and hit another tree. It slid down, unconscious. "Oh my god! I did not just do that... Did I just fucking punt a Growlithe?" The disbelief was thick in the boy's voice. Jack kneeled down by the hurt pokemon.

He would make this right.

Jackson grabbed a potion from his pack and healed the Growlithe. It awoke to being cradled in Jackson's arms. At first it attempted to lash out in fear, but smelled the sadness in the boy and hesitated. Water was falling from the boy's eyes, Growlithe cocked his head. Jackson was brought out of his sadness by a tongue licking his face. Oh thank god! He hadn't killed it!

"I'm so sorry! I really am! You just jump and I reacted... I didn't mean it I swear."

Growlithe probably didn't understand what Jack was saying, but seems to have forgiven him. The canine pokemon was in fact grateful that Jackson had treated his wounds.

After realizing that the Growlithe was complacent and not attempting to attack him, Jack wondered how he could make it up to the dog like pokemon. "Hey how about you stay with me? You can come along with Fang and I and I'll make this all up to you." Jackson held out a pokeball as he said the question.

The Growlithe was not sure what that ball did, maybe it was a toy? Boy, he sure loved toys, and sticks! Sticks were just almost as fun as balls! The pokemon tapped it nose to the pokeball and was immediately captured.

It wiggled once.

Twice.

Three times.

Click.

Jackson jumped up and pumped his fist in the air! Not only had he caught the Growlithe, but he now had two pokemon! "Yes!"

The boy held the pokeball, "I think I'm going to call you Tiger, that's a cool name right?" Returning Totodile to his ball, he grinned. Maybe this journey wouldn't be so bad. Now what was he forgetting...

The group!

It took what seemed like a shit ton of time to reach them again. When he did reach them, it seemed that he had missed something big. Most of them seemed to be covered in white sticky stuff. Uh, maybe he had missed something naughty. There was no way there had been some kind of orgy right? They barely knew each other and they had decided to do the dirty tengo? What the hell was wrong with this group? You can't have sex with people you just met! Unless the girls were some sort of teen prostitutes! Had he walked into some sort of pornographic film-loving group? No wait, there were some sort of spider pokemon retreating from the scene. The sticky white stuff was webbing! Jack openly sighed with relief. "Whoa, I leave for a while and when I come back all hell has broken loose. What happened?"

[Ogo]

~Avery Grant~

Avery shot his head back and greedily devoured all of the air that he could. His poor Lungs were begging for more of the stuff, but the little oxygen-addicts would surely explode if he took in any more. And that didn’t sound fun. He liked Lungs. Especially the left one. Right was cool, but Left was the real workhorse.

"I can help you get the webbing out of your hair, too? It's not really too hard, actually... but Spinarak webbing is kind of like glue, and if you don't get it out right, you might have to cut it out."

Cut?

Cut what?

His hair?

Avery touched his head. There was web alright. His hand continued moving up, and more and more of the webbing encased his hand. And it didn’t seem to want to get off. How would he ever get it all off? Fire? That might work. All he would have to do is roll around in a firepit for a little bit...but...but then he’d be all charred. And so would his hair. It would probably burn up, leaving him bald and defenseless against the sun. Which wasn’t cool. Sunburns were bad enough on his arms and whatnot. The jolt when they were touched was the stuff of nightmares. To have one on his head...how would he sleep?! Everytime he put his head against the pillow, he would be shocked with pain. So he couldn’t sleep. And if he couldn’t sleep, how would he have enough energy to do the important stuff, like lounging or napping?! And if he couldn’t do those, eventually he would die. And worst of all…

He would die bald.

No.

Avery nodded to Melody.

“I don’t wanna be bald. Please and thank you.”

Good. Melody had just said something about being a hair master or something. Why, she had probably tamed every follicle from Sinnoh to New Bark. If anyone could dominate the unruly riot-starting hair web, it would be her.

"So, where did we decide we were going? I still think Blackthorn would be best."

Avery thought for a moment, still trying to defend his scalp against the invading silky menace.

“Elm said Blackthorn, right? He always gives some good advice. I say we follow it.”

He spoke up, loud enough for the group, but not really directed to anybody. All of his attention was on the vile enemy. Or at least it had been. Then out of nowhere…

"Whoa, I leave for a while and when I come back all hell has broken loose. What happened?"

It was the musicman! He was back? Avery had thought for sure he had settled on the peaceful New Bark life...but he couldn’t blame the guy for having second thoughts. The call of the wild is a tempting mistress. When she beckons, one obeys.

What Avery had not recalled, was that there really was no farewells or splitting of the group in a dramatic fashion. They had gathered at the town’s edge, then left. Apparently without the guy. Whoever was keeping the head check should be fired and bludgeoned with improvised weapons.

...was it Avery?

IN ANY CASE, the webman was absolutely thrilled to see the singer. Now he could have music whenever he wanted. Poor Jackson, having just returned to the group, had been selected as an idiot’s personal jukebox. One which Avery would try to take advantage of as soon as possible.

But for now?

WEBBING.

Brain crept up behind InnerAvery and whispered in his ear, ‘Go forth, my child. Roll in the grass. Give into your inner hooligan. It is the only way to true freedom. BEGONE YE SHACKLES OF GOOEY OPPRESSION! THERE CAN BE ONLY FUN!’

And who was Avery to deny Brain? After all, Brain was a pretty stand-up organ. And he almost would have, but as he was heading to his designated wallowing pit, he saw a different set of organs.

Seeing organs.

Pissed-off seeing organs.

MANY pissed-off seeing organs.

Nope.

He might be an idiot, but he wasn’t an idiot.

[XxFellsingxX]

- Peggy Atkinson -

"...Why do I have the feeling you are not telling the whole story?" Blake responded to Peggy.

Note to self, Peggy: work on your poker face.

Just as Peggy was about to open her mouth to say something, Blake went after the rest of the group, leaving Peggy just standing there, uncertain as of what to do. Should she go after him and help? Should she just wait here patiently for them all to come back?

"What am I supposed to do?" Peggy muttered under her breath in frustration. After a second, she was about to take a step after Blake until he returned, with Melody, Abigail, Ryley and Avery following close behind.

Peggy gave a loud sigh of relief, but also of frustration. What the heck had taken them so long?

Abigail and Melody started speaking, though they were talking most about hair, which made Peggy frown, and she wasn't sure whether she should consider her traveling companions as badasses who weren't phased by anything, or morons who seriously needed to get their priorities straight.

After sorting out her hair slightly, Abigail then addressed the whole group.

"So, where did we decide we were going? I still think Blackthorn would be best," she said.

Under normal circumstances, Peggy would have just gone along with this - she had planned to before Abigail had gone running off - but now, after seeing Abigail scream loudly beforehand when that Spinarak had attacked, she suddenly felt the need to speak up, voice her own opinion about this matter.

"I-I don't-" Peggy started, only to be interrupted by Avery.

“Elm said Blackthorn, right? He always gives some good advice. I say we follow it,” he said.

Peggy's frown deepened. Huh? Hadn't Elm said Cherrygrove? She'd remember something like that, right? "But, I thought-" Peggy started again, only for another interruption to appear in the form of a boy. It took Peggy a moment to recognise him as she's only seen him briefly and hadn't spoken to him at all. He was one of the trainers who had started along with them, but it had looked like he wouldn't be going with them. Apparently, she'd been wrong.

"Whoa, I leave for a while and when I come back all hell has broken loose. What happened?" the boy, Jackson, said.

"I... we..." Peggy started again, but found she couldn't finish her sentence, though she wanted to answer the boy's question. It was then she noticed the tiny, beady eyes staring down from the trees and felt a lump form in her throat. Suddenly slightly panicked, she spoke up, "I-I think we should go to Cherrygrove!"

... wait? Did she actually say that?

"I-I m-mean, err, that it's closer a-and our Pokemon are p-probably tired already s-so we should go there," Peggy stammered, forcing herself to continue speaking. "A-and I have f-f-family there, so t-they p-probably w-w-want to know I'm o-okay..." Her voice started to trail off. "So... I think we should..." She became quiet, turning her gaze down to her feet.

[Nightmare Bunny]

~ROUTE 29~

~Melody Hemlock~

“I can take care of it myself,” said Abigail, pulling out a bottle of expensive-looking shampoo. Examining the label, Melody found herself rather impressed. That was a good brand.

"Straight from Kalos,” Abigail continued.[color= 662d91] "I made sure to come prepared. Not to mention the other stuff I have in here specifically for taking care of my hair.” [/color]She tucked the shampoo bottle away. "But yes, I can handle my hair myself. I'm not letting anyone else even touch it."

Melody sighed. Well, not trusting anyone else to mess with her hair… Melody could understand that. It was pretty wise, in fact! Just as expected from Abigail.

“Oh, of course!” she said, smiling even despite her disappointment. “I totally understand.”

And then Avery, who had taken a little while to think his answer through, nodded and said, “I don’t wanna be bald. Please and thank you.”

Melody beamed. She’d known she had a good feeling about this guy. “Great!” she said. He was a good deal taller than her, so she tugged him down more to her level, whipped out her trusty hair brush, and started brushing out most of the webbing, careful not to tug too hard.

Brushing the stuff out of Avery’s brown hair was kind of fun, actually. Once upon a time, Melody had wanted to be a hair stylist… of course, she’d also wanted to be a pastry chef, and a teacher, or maybe even a farmer. But none of those professions were appropriate for a proper young lady, or so her mother had told her, at least.

After that little impromptu haircare session was done, she released him, patting him on the shoulder. She suddenly liked Avery a whole lot more than she originally had. It was probably because he wasn’t really a threat to Abigail, and he let her play with his hair. Which was always a plus.

“When we get… wherever we’re going,” she told him, absentmindedly finishing up her own hair as well. “You’re going to have to borrow my shampoo and wash your hair out properly. There’s still some webbing left in there! All I got out was the dry stuff.”

"So, where did we decide we were going? I still think Blackthorn would be best," said Abigail.

"I-I don't-" That was Peggy. Melody frowned. She didn’t… agree with Abigail? Why not?

“Elm said Blackthorn, right? He always gives some good advice. I say we follow it,” Avery said.

"But, I thought-" Peggy, again.

And then someone emerged out of the blue, and… hey, wasn’t that the singing guy who’d nearly gotten eaten by his own Totodile? He was back? She’d kind of assumed that he’d gone off with some other trainers, but nope! He was back!

"Whoa, I leave for a while and when I come back all hell has broken loose. What happened?" said the boy.

Of course, that was exactly when Peggy decided to burst forth with her own little speech. "I... we... I-I think we should go to Cherrygrove! I-I m-mean, err, that it's closer a-and our Pokemon are p-probably tired already s-so we should go there, A-and I have f-f-family there, so t-they p-probably w-w-want to know I'm o-okay... So... I think we should..." She stopped, and stared at her feet.

“We accidentally wandered into a Spinarak nest,” Melody told the musician boy. “But it was okay. We fought them off. Abigail was really cool! And the rest of us helped too.”

More importantly, though… Peggy didn’t want to go to Blackthorn? But why? Did she just dislike Abigail, or something? Well, to be honest, it probably would be more reasonable to go to Cherrygrove. But…

Well, Melody didn’t like it. She felt a surge of resentment. What if Peggy was just trying to get Abigail’s attention? That wouldn’t do. That wouldn’t do at all.

Still, she forced a smile. It looked pretty natural, actually. Melody had always been good at lying. “Why don’t we do a vote then?” she said, fairly cheerfully. “That way everyone gets a say. But you can abstain if you want. It’s pretty obvious that Abigail and Avery are voting for Blackthorn, and Peggy’s voting for Cherrygrove, right? I guess I’ll throw my vote in for Blackthorn, myself. I do want that Zubat, after all, and I don’t think we can get one on the way to Cherrygrove.”

There. That sounded plenty reasonable. Right?