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Lance's Charges: Kanto


A/N: Still no reviews. Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. Like I said before, I'm writing this story for me, so I'll keep posting them as I write them.


Chapter 3: Advantage, Catherine


"Karina, duck and scratch above you!"

Catherine's totodile obeyed, dropping to her belly under the male nidoran's attack, blindly swiping above her with both claws. One made contact, drawing a thin line of blood down the poison-type's left side, but it would take more than that to finish him.

As soon as the nidoran landed, he repeated the attack, hitting Karina squarely in the back as she tried to rise, not having heard Catherine's order to roll to one side before attempting to stand. As a result, the air was blasted from her lungs, but Catherine's next order was loud enough to be heard. Rising to her feet, Karina saw that the nidoran was breathing heavily, but still clearly confident that he would win the battle.

"Karina, you can do this! Make dodging your priority; don't let him hit you again. Whenever you can, scratch him," Catherine said calmly. Her composure didn't seem to be shaken, but her eyes told a different story.

Madison had never seen such a wild look in those ice-blue eyes in her life. Catherine already loved the thrill of a pokemon battle, she could tell. Unfortunately, for the first time in Madison's memory, her friend had let emotions cloud her judgment, which wasn't good. Catherine excelled at strategizing because she was normally able to stay completely calm. However, she hadn't even thought to take her pokedex out and look at the nidoran's available statistics before charging into battle. While not insurmountable, the nidoran did have a distinct advantage over Karina in the level department, and it showed. Even Ian, who admitted to everyone that he wasn't particularly smart when it came to planning, seemed appalled by Catherine's lack of preparation for the battle.

The nidoran broke into a trot, gradually increasing his speed as he approached the tense totodile. This time, he clearly expected her to duck, because he hardly jumped at all vertically, making his attack that much quicker as a result. That turned out to be exactly what Karina was counting on, though.

Using the strongest pair of legs that any region's standard starting pokemon possessed, Karina coiled and sprang up into the air, rolling over at the apex of her jump and swiping out with both claws, catching the surprised nidoran inside of his ears. The helpless poison-type began a slow spin backwards as he descended, skidding onto his haunches instead of landing smoothly. Blood trickled out of both ears and the nidoran suddenly seemed unable to stand steadily. Nidoran, particularly the males, counted on their superior hearing more than almost any other pokemon. The battle was over.

Her smile as wide as Madison had ever seen it; Catherine tossed a pokeball over at the nidoran, letting out a soft sigh of relief as the light on the ball went out after only one significant shake. "You were spectacular, Karina," Catherine said, recalling her water-type.

"I thought you were toast!" Ian exulted, walking forward and shaking her hand forcefully. He was wearing a new hat from his mother, a black one decorated with a picture of a salamence. "Great work in the end, though, I don't know if Njord and I could have won against that one."

"The pokedex said that he was considerably stronger than Karina in every category except defense and hit points," Madison said, her face breaking out into a grin to match Catherine's. "But hey, all's well that ends well, right?"

"It sure is," Catherine said, bending over to pick up the nidoran's pokeball. "I think his name will be Blake, what do you two think about that?"

"Oh, I love it!" Madison squealed.

"Sounds ok to me," Ian said. "I've got a couple of potions to spare if you want to let him out and heal those ears."

"Thanks, but I'll use my own," Catherine replied, flashing Ian a smile and releasing her new pokemon. Blake immediately perked up and winced, having tried to move his ears to better listen to his surroundings. Catherine bent down and sprayed one ear, making soft, soothing noises as Blake hissed and backed away from her. Potions were painful when applied directly to wounds, but they sped the healing process up exponentially.

"I know it stings, but it'll help, I promise," Catherine cooed, pulling the unresisting nidoran around so she could spray his other ear. His hiss was much less audible this time. "Want me to spray your side, Blake?" The pokemon locked eyes with her before obediently turning and presenting his other injury to her. The blood had dried onto his fur, but one spray from the potion had it running off immediately.

"You'll heal better in your pokeball," Catherine said apologetically, recalling Blake.

"Good bedside manner," Madison said approvingly as Ian handed Catherine her pack.

"That's not exactly what it was," Catherine said, smiling ruefully.

The group had had even less luck than their friends to the south in terms of finding pokemon. They had been walking for the better part of four hours and Blake was the first-and only-that any of them had seen so far.

"Did any of you expect it to be like this?" Ian asked.

"Like what?" Madison said.

"So boring! We're supposed to be meeting other trainers and fighting wild pokemon all over the place! I haven't even seen another person yet."

"I expected it," Catherine said. Now that the excitement from the battle had worn off, she was back to her usual calm, cool and collected self. "We're in the northern part of the forest, which is the least dense area, so there are fewer wild pokemon. Setting that aside, almost no one goes to and from Orpiment, and that's really the only reason to pass through this forest at all. Once we get on the route between Cerulean and Saffron, then we can expect to fight more trainers and pokemon."

"What about people traveling directly from Celadon to Cerulean and vice versa?" Madison asked.

"There's a road that goes around the edge of the forest that all of the cars take, and most trainers find it easier to go around it than to go through. Then again, most of them don't know about our town."

"Any idea how long it'll be until we reach the main route?" Ian asked.

"I've never gone this way before, but Marcus went with his brother once and said it didn't even take a full day of walking to get through the forest. Then all we have to do is cut east when we get to the grasslands," Catherine said. The young trainers all knew that they could check their pokedex map function to see exactly where they were, but that would take away some of the fun of the journey. There would be plenty of time for practicality later.

"Why not just go directly northeast?" Madison asked.

"Think about it, Madison," Ian said. "It means less time in the forest and more time where there are a lot more wild pokemon around. Even if it makes our road to Cerulean take a bit longer, I'd say it's time well spent, right?"

"Yeah, I'm just really eager to get to the city," Madison said. "But there's really no point in getting there until Lopia is strong enough to challenge the gym."

"You can't challenge the gym with Lopia alone," Catherine pointed out.

"What? Why?" Madison asked.

"Gym leaders must be allowed to set the terms of battle after being challenged, that includes choosing how many pokemon can be used. Trainers have to have at least two to give the gym leaders that choice," Catherine said.

"No way! I could've sworn the first gym challenge for any trainer was an exception to that," Madison argued.

"I don't think there are any exceptions," Catherine said, shaking her head.

"Damn, looks like I need to catch something before we get there," Madison said, sounding oddly glum at the prospect of adding to her team.

"Something wrong with the pokemon out here?" Ian asked without a hint of malice. He didn't understand why a trainer with only one pokemon wouldn't want to catch another.

"Not really," Madison said. "I just thought I could catch something in that area north of the city, that's all. There are abra over there."

"Doesn't mean you can't catch something on the way," Ian pointed out. "There are a lot of different kinds in this area."

Madison shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. I was just so focused on abra, you know? But you're right, I'm being ridiculous."

"You were," Catherine corrected, smirking at her friend. "But look on the bright side, I think I can see the end of the forest up ahead."

"Race you!" With that shared cry, the three trainers dashed ahead as quickly as they could with their cumbersome packs. Ian, who was the strongest, and had been practicing running with his pack for weeks, quickly pulled ahead of the other two, who were fairly close together. Though she was very graceful, Catherine had never been much of a runner, but her longer legs still allowed her to keep pace with the more athletic Madison.

They weren't a bit disappointed with the image before them when they finally exited the forest. Tall grass stretched for miles and miles ahead of them. Cerulean wasn't visible yet, but the mountains beyond it were, despite looking like mere shadows on the sky from so far away. As soon as Ian reached the grass, a flock of pidgey took off not ten feet in front of him. Watching them, he would have missed a pair of doduo running over the hill just east of them had Madison not elbowed him and pointed them out.

It was, in a word, amazing. Not only could they see farther than they had ever been able to before, but the sheer number of pokemon that were literally everywhere was staggering.

"Yeah, I was being really ridiculous," Madison said.

"Completely," Ian agreed.

"Dunno about you two, but I'm going to go find something to battle!" Madison enthused, preparing herself for another sprint.

"Wait," Catherine said, pulling out her pokedex and checking the map. She was clearly fighting a losing battle to keep her own excitement at bay. "We should make a plan before anyone goes off alone. Let's agree to meet in two hours about a mile east of here, does that sound ok?"

"Yeah, and anyone who needs help shouldn't hesitate to jet out an email to the other two," Madison suggested. "Two of us only have one pokemon, and both of yours are injured, Catherine. Anything can happen."

"Ok, let's go!" Ian said, his enthusiasm matching Madison's. He took off almost directly north, which meant he'd be walking the farthest of the three in the end.

Madison and Catherine's eyes met. "I'm going along the forest," Catherine said. "You ok with going northeast?"

"It's all the same, really," Madison said, jogging backwards and waving. "See you soon!"

Catherine grinned. She fully intended to have another pokemon captured by the time she saw them next, but only if she crossed paths with a suitable one.

Her plan, if it could really be called one, was simple. Both the forest and the plains had their share of pokemon far stronger than the majority. She (correctly) believed that most of those strong pokemon tended towards the center area of each, while the weakest stayed on the borders between areas, hoping to be able to flee from one to the other as needed. Since Catherine's pokemon were fairly weak, she figured that her best chance of finding pokemon close to their level was along the border.

While she was right, it meant that her encounters would be few and far between, at least when compared with her friends.


~-~-~-~


"Go for it, Njord!" Ian called, pointing at an unsuspecting rattata. His squirtle obeyed, smirking slightly and leaping at the rattata in a tackle attack.

Ian wasn't sure if it was luck or skill on the rattata's part, but its tail whip came at just the right time with just the right amount of force to divert Njord face first into the ground. Furious, the squirtle responded with a stronger tackle, one that sent the poor rattata several feet into the air. After landing, the normal-type immediately fled.

"Good work, Njord," Ian said, smirking slightly.

"Squirt," Njord put in, clapping one hand against his chestplate. When his trainer wasn't looking, he spat out a mouthful of dirt.

"You'll learn bubble in no time at all, at this rate!" Ian said enthusiastically. "C'mon, let's go see what else is out there."

Njord grinned and followed his trainer, his confidence high after such an easy fight. Still, he knew he'd have to be more careful, a similar fall against a more powerful opponent could mean a quick knockout. Speaking of...

"Spear!"

"Get into your shell!" Ian shouted, seeing the spearow only seconds before it would strike.

Njord looked at his trainer helplessly, not having learned to withdraw yet. Turning his head allowed him to see out of the corner of his eye, though, and he was able to throw himself onto his back and just barely avoid the dive-bombing bird pokemon. A strong tail whip flipped him over to his stomach, and from there Njord was able to rise in time to prepare for the spearow's next sweep.

Ian had no idea what the spearow thought it was doing, going after a pokemon it had nothing to gain from beating. Maybe they were in its perceived territory.

"Njord, be ready to hit it with your tail whip the next time you dodge," Ian said, receiving a nod from his squirtle in response. The spearow swooped in again, but this time Njord was fully prepared. Even as he ducked to one side, he shifted most of his weight to maximize the impact of his tail and smashed it into one of the spearow's wings, sending it skidding into the ground. Njord noted with no small amount of satisfaction that it wasn't the one eating dirt in this fight.

The spearow hopped to its feet a moment later and looked behind it, gaining some resolve in the process, it seemed, because when it turned back around its feathers were puffed up in an attempt at intimidation.

Ian now thought he had figured out what the problem was. He pulled out his pokedex and walked up on top of a small mound of rocks nearby to get a better view. Sure enough his pokedex told him that the spearow was young, and hadn't hatched more than two months earlier. From his new vantage point, Ian saw a nest cunningly hidden within the tall grass, surrounded by rocks large enough that a spearow couldn't hope to move them.

"Njord, stop," Ian said, seeing that his squirtle was about to attack again. "It's just protecting its siblings. And we don't want to be here when its parents arrive."

"Squirt?" Njord asked questioningly, moving away from the angry spearow and towards its trainer.

"Do you want to fight a fearow?" Ian asked pointedly, taking some relief from the fact that the spearow's feathers were gradually returning to their normal position.

Njord wisely didn't answer. As he turned to walk with his trainer, his foot caught on something and he fell forward, barely catching himself in time. Looking down to see what had tripped him up, Njord couldn't find anything.

"You ok?" Ian asked, helping his squirtle up. As the pair continued moving, they didn't notice a small pokemon carefully slip out from behind the rock pile Ian had jumped on earlier and begin to follow them.


~-~-~-~


"You know, you really should listen to me. I can help you," Madison said, amusement laced in her tone.

Lopia was fighting blindly, stinging sand in her eyes from the pidgey's opening attack. Madison had sent her out to go after a meowth, but the bulbasaur didn't want to obey a single order from her trainer, so she went after a better prepared pidgey, and was now paying the price for not listening to Madison's battle orders. She was a smart girl, so ignoring every order she gave meant doing something quite stupid more often than not.

"Bulba!" Lopia spat, aiming for where she heard the rustle of wings, though it was actually the grass nearby moving together in the wind. She wasn't even able to land safely before the pidgey had bowled her over, chirping gleefully.

Madison sighed. At this rate she'd never catch another pokemon. Fortunately, losing seemed to be helping her bulbasaur get stronger, if nothing else. After one particularly frustrating miss, a seed emerged from the bulb atop Lopia's back and shot forward at an alarming rate, slamming uselessly into a nearby rock. The pidgey, of course, took advantage of that to attack once more, sending Lopia spinning to the ground again.

"Let me tell you where to aim!" Madison called. Lopia grunted in acknowledgement, having taken enough punishment for one day. "It's coming in on your left, a bit higher than my head, but it's coming straight at you!"

Another seed left Lopia's bulb, this one going a little slower, but somewhat higher than the last. As if sensing the pidgey, a pair of vines hatched from the seed as it traveled, latching onto the pidgey's wing and bringing it to the ground. Bulbasaur, meanwhile, suddenly stood straighter. Madison saw a couple of her scrapes heal over completely. The shift in momentum proved to be just what Lopia needed. Between rapidly clearing vision and the thump that the pidgey had made when it hit the ground, Lopia had no trouble finding it and delivering a devastating tackle as it tried to rise. The pidgey flew through the air, recovered before it hit the ground, and took flight in the opposite direction, shaking off the leech seed as it flew.

Lopia sauntered over to her trainer once she was certain the pidgey wouldn't return, looking tired but extremely pleased with herself.

"You know, I thought you'd listen to me after I recalled you at home, I thought we had an agreement," Madison said, sitting down where she stood.

Lopia snorted.

"What about now?" Madison asked. Lopia seemed uncertain, so she took the offensive. "My parents gave me a nest ball, so I can probably catch something out here without your help. If you don't want me to use you, I don't really have to."

The bulbasaur didn't seem to like that very much, but was still reluctant to make the first move.

"Come on, Lopia, you know we'd make a great team," Madison wheedled.

"Saur," Lopia conceded, and immediately wished she hadn't as Madison stood up and did a ridiculous victory dance.

Rolling her eyes, Lopia spotted her first leech seed still lying on the ground where it had landed. After a few minutes had elapsed, the seed would no longer latch onto anything it touched. Now, however, it was like a potion in pill form. Lopia quickly trotted over and swallowed it in one bite, grimacing at the taste.

"You need your rest for now," Madison said, recalling the bulbasaur. "Hopefully we'll get into another battle soon."

She crested the top of a hill minutes later, and found an even more breathtaking view in front of her. It seemed as though there were only a few hills near the forest, since the plains for miles ahead of her appeared perfectly flat. At the base of the hill, a shallow stream flowed, its water reflecting the waning sun. Madison checked her pokedex, but it had only been an hour.

Giving into one of her childish impulses, Madison tossed her pack ahead of her and rolled down the hill, only managing to stop a few feet short of the stream. It was too shallow to house any water pokemon, which she would have been tempted to search for, but her trip down had scared a couple of sandshrew away.

Madison knelt down to refill her canteen and looked out in front of her. Though it was still very bright outside, a few pokemon could be seen going back to their dens or nests, while others hoped to catch them unawares. She couldn't help but laugh when a wild ekans' ambush was foiled by a doduo stepping on its tail.

"Catch anything interesting?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin, so great was her surprise. As it was, her shriek sent any and all nearby hidden pokemon scurrying away. Behind her was a boy who was perhaps a year or two older than her. He was tall and thin, with fairly long dark hair, and while he wasn't particularly handsome, his face had a strange sort of identity to it that Madison would have found hard to describe. Everything about him was angular, from his long, thin fingers to his sharp nose and chin. His eyes were gray, and a little tired.

It took her a couple of seconds to remember that he had asked her a question. "Um, no, not really. I'm...looking for something special."

"On your first capture?"

Madison felt a flicker of suspicion at that. "How do you know I'm just starting out?"

The boy laughed, dispelling most of her concerns. "Not too many veterans will roll down a hill like that anymore, and fewer still will shriek when surprised."

"Fair enough," Madison said. "So does that make you a veteran?"

"Not really," he said, laughing again. "I have a couple of pokemon that are pretty strong, but I just caught one here that isn't too tough. Care to battle it?"

Madison made a face. "How do I know I'm not being hustled?"

The boy opened his arms wide in mock surrender. "We don't have to put up any money if you don't want to. I'll even revive your pokemon if you lose with my own items, so there's literally nothing to lose, how does that sound?"

"You're going to an awful lot of trouble just to battle me," Madison said, but she was smiling.

"Yeah, well I feel like I owe a couple of experienced trainers that helped me out when I was new," he explained. "Think of this as me paying it forward."

"Ok, I guess we can battle, then," Madison said. "Go on and send out your pokemon, I've only got the one to choose from anyway."

"Sure you do," the boy said, giving her an exaggerated wink. "Well, here we go!" He tossed out a pokeball, and Madison was surprised when the red light that burst forth formed into a cubone. She had been expecting something a bit less common, but the species had been growing increasingly scarce over the past few years.

"Ok, Lopia," Madison whispered into the ball. "Let's take this guy down!" With that, she threw the ball, releasing her bulbasaur. Their issues from before were forgotten; she saw it in her pokemon's eyes. Even though Lopia knew nothing of the nature of the challenge, her thirst to prove that she and her trainer were superior overrode any lingering misgivings she might have had.

"Cubone, use bone club!" The little pokemon dashed forward with astonishing speed, but Lopia was ready for it. A pair of vines wrapped around the bone in its hand. However, cubone's grip was far too strong to be broken, so she did the next best thing. Up in the air went the cubone, and then down again, but its skull protected it from most of the impact. It acted as though it hadn't felt a thing, wrenching its bone from Lopia's vines with surprising strength before beginning another charge.

"Leech seed!" Madison called. For the third time that day, a small brown seed shot from her bulb, this one traveling as fast as the original shot had.

"Swat it away!" the boy called, and the cubone tried, but it missed the seed when it swung, and was wrapped in life-draining vines a second later.

"Lopia, see if you can grab its weapon!"

"Hold on tight, Cubone, it'll be weak enough for you to break through soon!"

The leech seed continued to absorb energy from the prone ground-type while Lopia's remaining scrapes and bruises from earlier were fully healed. She sent her vines to grab the bone, but the cubone managed to hold on.

"Forget it, just tackle it!" Madison shouted, not seeing the smirk on her opponent's face. As Lopia approached the cubone, it flexed, finally snapping the tight hold the leech seed had on it just in time. When Lopia leaped, the cubone smashed the side of her head with its bone, opening up a shallow cut on her cheek. Lopia's momentum couldn't be stopped by the attack, though, and the cubone was hit right in the stomach. Both pokemon were on their feet a second later, each one looking slightly worse for the collision.

"Bone club, but watch out for the vines!" the boy called out. At such a low level, his move options were limited, so a lot depended on the cubone's dodging.

"Grab it by the skull this time!" Madison said, smiling grimly.

Even as the cubone approached its foe, it was afraid. Lopia looked especially intimidating with blood slowly trickling down the side of her face, and the vines that had suddenly attached themselves to its skull behind its eyes weren't helping any. It beat the vines with its bone, but while they could be cut, they couldn't be bruised, and the vines of a grass-type didn't have any nerves.

"Pry them loose, quick before they swing you down!" the boy shouted. The cubone obeyed, diligently sticking its bone between its skull and each vine and prying them loose as quickly as possible. Lopia was relatively low level, so its task was an easy one. Unfortunately, even if it was an improvement over being slammed into the ground from thirty feet, a straight drop from the same height was far from ideal. The cubone screamed in fear as it fell.

"Catch it," Madison said, and Lopia obediently sent her vines forward, intercepting the cubone ten feet up before letting it down gently. "I think that means I win."

He smiled slightly and recalled his cubone. "I think it does, too. Thanks for saving it."

"It? Don't you know what gender it is? How else can you give it...?" Madison trailed off when she realized that he had been calling it "Cubone" during the battle.

"Uh, yeah, I don't have a pokedex or any other way to tell," he said, looking furious with himself.

"Well I've got a pokedex, so we can find out what gender it is if you want," Madison offered.

He looked conflicted for a moment before nodding his agreement. "No fair trying to name it, though, it's for my little cousin, so it's her job to name it." He looked unhappy, probably because he didn't want to give it up, Madison realized.

She pulled out her pokedex. "Bring it closer, this thing can't read pokeballs unless they're right by it. Ok, it's a girl, just like Lopia." She looked up at him. He was smiling, but it looked a little bit like a grimace.

"Thanks," the boy said, shaking his head and apparently releasing his negative feelings as he did. When he faced her again, his smile appeared genuine. "What's your name?"

"Madison Carr," she said, matching his smile. "What's-"

"You aren't traveling alone, are you?" he asked, interrupting her question.

"No, me and my friends just split up to hunt for pokemon," Madison said.

The boy nodded. "Well, Madison, it's been fun. You'll have to tell me about your friends the next time we see each other."

"You can meet them," Madison said. The rest of his statement caught up to her a second later. "Wait, you're leaving? I don't even know your name!"

"That's ok, we'll see each other again, I'm sure of it. Until then!" Madison hadn't noticed before, but smoke had been building up around the boy, and when he finished his farewell and stepped back, it was like he'd never been there in the first place. She thought she heard the grass rustle to her left, but when she turned there, there was nothing. When the smoke cleared, she and Lopia were alone by the stream.

"That was weird," Madison said, turning to her bulbasaur, who was looking back up the hill. "Think we'll actually see him again?"

"Bulba," Lopia said indifferently.

"Yeah, it doesn't really matter right now. We should go meet up with Catherine and Ian, we've still got a bit of a walk ahead of us to get to the meeting place."

Lopia fell into step beside her trainer, wishing she had managed to use leech seed one last time on the boy's cubone. Still, the cut would heal.


~-~-~-~


"This was such a stupid idea," Catherine growled, stomping furiously towards the agreed upon meeting place. Karina and Blake had made great strides in their battling, but she had yet to fight a single pokemon that was interesting enough to warrant capturing. She had been tempted by a female nidoran, but that wouldn't have made for a very versatile team. A barking sound from behind her halted her in her tracks.

As she turned, a panicked caterpie fled as quickly as it could towards the safety that only a tree could provide. Unfortunately, caterpie wasn't known for its speed. As Catherine watched, the source of the bark became apparent when a growlithe came bounding out of the tall grass, looking extremely pleased with itself. It jumped directly into the path of the caterpie pawing at it playfully.

The caterpie wasn't amused.

Catherine pulled Karina's pokeball out as quietly as she could and double-tapped it open. The growlithe turned at the slight sound that came from the pokeball. The change in its demeanor was noticeable. It nudged the caterpie out of the way with its snout and faced Karina looking fairly serious, though the slight sparkle remained in its eyes. Having won once without it, Catherine felt no uneasiness about checking her pokedex, and found that the growlithe was male, and that it matched up fairly evenly against Karina, who had more or less caught up to Blake during the day.

"Ok, Karina, let's take this one nice and slow," Catherine said easily. She now knew what, in general, to expect from her totodile, making battles a lot less nerve-wracking.

Karina did exactly what she was told to do, and waited for her opponent to make the first move. She was bouncing eagerly on the balls of her feet, though.

Finally, the growlithe barked impatiently and ran forward to attack. Karina stopped bouncing and prepared to spring to one side and avoid the predictable bite. However, the growlithe skidded to a halt a couple of feet away and spat out an ember attack at her, which Karina had no time to dodge.

"Scratch him!" Catherine called, watching with trepidation as her pokemon obliged, her superior legwork allowing her to leave a light scratch on the growlithe's flank. This time, he clearly expected his bite to make contact, but Karina followed up her scratch with a punch that signaled the beginning of her rage attack. The growlithe didn't understand the significance, so he moved ahead anyway and bit into Karina's shoulder, drawing a bit of blood.

Karina's responding blow caused his hind legs to buckle, but he didn't release her shoulder, and the cuts grew. Karina's rage brought her attack higher still and her third punch caused the growlithe to release at last, falling to the ground in defeat. It had been a close call, though. Karina's shoulder looked messy, and Catherine knew she'd either have to give her a potion or keep her in her pokeball until they got to Cerulean.

Catherine threw her last empty pokeball at the prone growlithe, holding her breath until it stopped shaking.

"Good to have you on the team, Donovan," she said, having decided on the nickname sometime during the battle.

Her latest capture taken care of, Catherine knelt down to get a closer look at Karina's shoulder. The wound wasn't deep, but it was quite messy. She rummaged in her bag and found-much to her relief-that she still had three potions left. She allowed Karina to grip one of her fingers as she completely emptied the potion onto the totodile's shoulder, and was surprised at the strength of her grip.

"Time to go meet the others," she said to herself, recalling Karina and continuing east.


~-~-~-~


Ian exchanged a weary glance with his squirtle. He and Njord had been in countless battles during the day, winning nearly all of them with ease, but aside from a doduo that was far too strong for them to beat, Ian hadn't seen anything that struck his fancy.

A soft growl from his left was the only indicator he had that his squirtle had fallen once again. Ever since battling the spearow near its nest, Njord had been unable to walk more than a hundred yards without tripping. He had become increasingly paranoid about the cause, and Ian was beginning to agree with him. Njord hadn't displayed any clumsiness before, after all.

"Squirt squirtle!" Njord shouted furiously, presumably challenging whatever was tripping him up. Ian sighed and recalled his angry pokemon when no response came forth. He could see the campfire that the girls had set up ahead anyway.