[b][u]collab between grandz and c3[/u][/b]

With his pokemon now missing Ren thought that he better getting moving soon. Abra was a troublemaker but what kind problems could a small yellow troll cause. Then again a small [i]troll[/i]. It was sad that was exactly what his Abra tended to be sometimes. Ren walked over to the boxes and pulled out some of the last pokedex and Holocaster. Of course a trainer like him had plenty pokeballs so he left the remaining ones there for the professor and his many assistants. 

[color=red]"Guys we better get going."[/color] He told his pokemon as he held up his two pokeballs and a red light shot out from each returning Magikarp and Bulbasaur into their resting place. [color=red]"Thanks for everything professor!" [/color] He yelled as he begun to run out of the building looking for his Abra.

As Ren ran out of the building he noticed a girl sitting with her Gothita. It was not the girl that caught his attention as much as the pokemon that she sat with. Even though Ren had something he should be doing right now he simply could not help himself when he saw a cool pokemon. Especially if it was a pokemon that he had never seen before. Ren walked over to Cerise and picked up her Gothita and held it in his hands. Then he looked down at the trainer.

[color=red]"Sorry about that. I guess I get carried away sometimes when it comes to pokemon." [/color] 

Cerise practically squawked in surprise when suddenly some stranger had snatched her little Iris out of her lap. The odd… lizard thing trapped in her bag was momentarily forgotten as Cerise scrambled to her feet, pulling herself up to her full (unimpressive) height. 

[color=pink]"Hey!"[/color] she all but shouted at the boy. 

Ren looked back at her. She was almost as tiny as her baby pokemon. He almost wanted to pat her on her head except she looked pretty startled right now. He could still pull it off but maybe it would be better to take a different approach. First he handed back her pokemon.

[color=red]"I am so sorry. I thought your pokemon looked so cool so I wanted to say hi to it."[/color] Ren said trying to apologise. 

Almost before the stranger stretched out to hand the gothita back to her, Cerise reached out and snatched her pokemon back. Cradling Iris to her chest, she made a soft cooing noise. Not that it seemed to matter to the little gothita. She just kept staring at Cerise, impassive. Certain that her pokemon was safe and calm, Cerise snapped her head back up to glare at the boy.

[color=pink]”Yeah, well it was still rude!”[/color] she snapped. Cerise huffed to herself, looking back down at Iris and petting down her ruffled fur. Honestly, some people. 

The muffled sound of disgruntled squeaking snapped her out of her thoughts, and Cerise’s eyes widened when she looked back at her bag on the floor. It was moving. That stupid lizard was still in her bag.

Ren looked at the girl and almost started laughing but he knew that would be even more rude of him. By the way she held her pokemon and how protective she was towards it he could tell that she must be a new trainer. It almost reminded Ren of his Spearow and how he never let anyone touch it until it was healed. But that was way back when he was a kid and did not know anything really. Then he noticed something.

[color=red]”Hey what is in your bag? You don’t catch your pokemon in there do you?”[/color] He asked the girl.

[color=pink]”It stole my berry, ok?”[/color] Cerise snapped back. She flinched when the words replayed in her head, and she realized that made no sense at all as far as explanations went. If she wasn’t holding Iris in both hands, she would’ve smacked her forehead.

[color=red]“So you kidnapped it for stealing from you? If you’re going to kidnap pokemon then why not make it legit and catch it?”[/color] He replied to her.

The girl glared at him then knelt down beside the bag, shifting Iris so the Gothita was resting in one hand. 

[color=pink]”I didn’t kidnap it,”[/color] she tried again, growing more flustered the longer this conversation went on. [color=pink]”It jumped in my bag on its own and I reacted.”[/color] Reaching out her free hand, she hesitated a moment before poking the bag. The fabric jumped and Cerise squeaked as she fell back on her butt. Blushing, she glared at the bag. [color=pink]”Ok,”[/color] she said through gritted teeth, [color=pink]”how do I get it out without it… jumping at me?”[/color]


[color=red]“Well that pokemon is going to jump out at you no matter what.”[/color] Ren interjected to her. [color=red] “But remember a pokemon won’t respect you if you run away from them. Just face it head on and you have done nothing wrong.”[/color] Ren advised her.

Cerise paused at his response and then looked up at him.

[color=pink]”You are [i]zero[/i] help.”[/color] She turned back to the bag and crept closer again. Placing Iris on the ground next to her, she curled her fingers around the bag, trying not to jump again when the fabric moved. Her other hand grabbed the zipper. She was frozen for a moment as she worked up her nerve. Then with a deep breath, she yanked her bag open.

The moment the zipper was undone, the berry-coated lizard came flashing out of the bag. Cerise squeaked and fell back again, bringing her hands up to block her face on reflex… except the lizard never made it to her.

Iris had jumped up and bodily smacked the green pokemon. Granted, the blow hadn’t actually [i]done[/i] anything to it except surprise it. Iris stood between the lizard and Cerise, impassive as ever. The lizard looked between the tiny doll-like pokemon, up at Cerise, and then finally at Ren. Cerise had no idea how, but its expression read ‘[i]Are you kidding me with this?[/i]

Apparently it was unimpressed.

Ren looked on at the situation. The pokemon in the bag was none other than a small Treecko. It didn’t exactly look like it was in the girl’s favor if it insisted on a battle but they said newly hatched pokemon could be surprising. Of course Ren would intervene if it got dangerous. Then again would he have to?

Ren pulled out an apple and gave it to Cerise. [color=red]“Sometimes brute force is not the best way to win. You have to think outside the box.”[/color] Ren said hoping she would get what he meant. 

Cerise saw the boy holding the apple in the corner of her vision, but she refused to take her eyes off of the green pokemon in front of her. The lizard seemed calm enough, watching them all with a dubious gaze. Setting her jaw, Cerise snatched the apple up and threw it across the field, hoping the lizard would follow. To her relief, it shifted to all fours to run after it… but her relief turned to horror when instead it jumped up on her outstretched hand and crawled up her arm. It scrambled from her shoulder, across her back, and down her other arm, leaving a trail of blue berry juice on her skin before it dove into her bag again. Cerise was still frozen, trying to process what just happened when suddenly there was a flash of red light from inside the fabric.

Her jaw dropped open.

[color=pink]”Oh no, absolutely [i]not[/i], you stupid reptile,”[/color] she said as she scrambled to her bag. She yanked it open, and dug until she found a shaking, warm pokeball. Grabbing it, she threw it against the tree and the lizard appeared again in a flash of light. It gave a little shake, as though the inside of the pokeball was dusty, and then focused its yellow eyes on Cerise. She swore it had the audacity to [i]smirk[/i] at her before it dove into her bag again, grabbed [i]another[/i] berry, and darted back to the pokeball. In less than two seconds, it had disappeared again in a flash of light. Cerise was frozen for a moment.

[color=pink]”…[i]Are you kidding me?![/i]”[/color]

Ren stood back laughing about the whole thing. Treeckos were awesome pokemon but this girl seemed to be annoyed by every single feature of it. To Ren this was the most hilarious thing he had seen all day long. [color=red]“You know it is not that bad. At least all it wanted was a nice little meal.”[/color] Ren bantered at her.

Cerise looked up to glare at him, before turning back to eye the blue stains on her skin. Giving a huff, she turned back to look at Iris, who’d been still since trying to attack the lizard. The girl’s expression softened a bit and she sighed, picking up the gothita again. 

[color=pink]”Dumb lizard thing,”[/color] she muttered to herself before dropping a kiss on top of Iris’ head. She eyed the pokeball again as though it had personally offended her. She supposed in a way it had. 

Ren looked at her and realized something. [color=red]“Oh hey, I never introduced myself. I’m Ren Flint.”[/color] The trainer then offered her a handshake.  

Cerise pushed herself to her feet and looked down at the offered hand with an eyebrow raised. Did she [i]really[/i] have to introduce herself to this guy? She sighed and rolled her eyes.

[color=pink]”Cerise,”[/color] she replied, shaking his hand in a light grip.

Ren shook her hand back. [color=red]”So are you going to keep both of them as pets?”[/color] Ren said thinking she would never be the type to travel.

Cerise wanted to ask if that was really any of his business, but kept her mouth shut long enough to come up with a less… abrasive response. 

[color=pink]”No, not pets,”[/color] she answered as politely as she could. [color=pink]”I’m going around Kalos and I need to get at least a couple of badges along the way.”[/color]

Ren looked a bit surprised to hear that since he imagined her having a terrible time. [color=red]”Cool, me too. Me and my Magikarp are going to win the Kalos Pokemon League this year. Or at least almost die trying.”[/color] He laughed a bit.

Cerise stared at Ren, raising her eyebrow again. Was that an attempt at humor? Because the way he looked to her right now, he might actually die. That seemed like a legitimate outcome that might happen, especially if he was starting off with a [i]magikarp[/i]. Cerise didn’t know much about pokemon, but even she knew that those fish were pretty trash until you could get them to evolve.

[color=pink]”You and your… magikarp. Is that your only pokemon?”[/color]

[color=red]”No but it’s my strongest one,”[/color] Ren told her.

Cerise looked at him, her expression slowly morphing from annoyance to disbelief. 

[color=pink]”You’re not even joking right now, are you,”[/color] she said. [color=pink]”You’re trying to lecture me on how to catch a pokemon or be a trainer or whatever, and your best pokemon is a [i]magikarp[/i]?”[/color] Something akin to pity washed over her face. [color=pink]”Oh my god, you really are going to die.”[/color]

Ren merely laughed at her remark. [color=red]”Trust me that is why Magikarp can win. Because everyone tells him that he can’t,”[/color] Ren told her.

Cerise was fairly certain this guy was off his rocker, but she just shook her head. Who was she to crush his dream? 

[color=pink]”Ok, sure. Good luck with that.”[/color] She reached down to grab her bag off the floor, but hesitated when she saw the offending pokeball next to it. She glared a bit before snatching both the bag and the ball, making sure to not drop Iris in the process.

Then Ren got a great idea. [color=red]’Hey if you are traveling alone you are welcome to come with me. You know since we are going the same direction. Oh and I brought a ton of gear with me,”[/color] Ren proposed to her.

She froze when she heard his offer, her eyes snapping to him. On the one hand… no. On the other, she really didn’t know what she was doing with this trainer nonsense (then again, she was seriously beginning to doubt he was any better). 

[color=pink]”You want us to travel together,”[/color] she said. Honestly, she was just stalling for time. Cerise had no idea how to answer this, and laughing in his face probably wasn’t appropriate.

Ren could see she didn’t want to so he wasn’t going to bug her about it. [color=red]”Well you don’t have to but I thought you would go crazy in the woods at night with that green pokemon with you for weeks on end.”[/color] Ren turning and started to walk away. [color=red]”But I have to locate my Abra so I wish you the best of luck and we probably will never see each other again. Bye.”[/color] Ren waved back at her as he walked away.

Cerise blinked at his retreating back. Well that was… abrupt. 

[color=pink]”Ok bye then,”[/color] she said to the empty space. Then she just shook her head to herself again, as though to clear him from her mind. She had other things to worry about. Like deciding if she was gonna turn her stupid lizard into a purse or a pair of boots.

[hider=TL;DR]idek what happened. we were supposed to get our characters to travel together and it all went south. we're bad at this. i am likely the source of the problems. oh well maybe next time.[/hider]