Episode 4: Old and New:Battle in the Forest!

"Viper, you're freaking me out," I mutter, eyes narrowed. Squirtle clutches the back of my shirt, staring untrustingly at Viper. I notice Viper's grip on my hands tightening; they're actually starting to hurt a little. "Er...can you please let go of me?"

"Perhaps you're not as tough as I thought you were," he says, grinning madly. "Venom, Poison Sting. Not too strong, just knock them both unconcious." I suddenly realise the black Ekans lying between us *wasn't* lying between us; it was now slithering away, trying to get behind me. Squirtle water guns it into a tree before it can get anywhere. Before I can say thanks, Viper stands up and pulls me with him, then twists me around and puts his arm around my vulnerable neck, choking me. "One wrong move, little squirtle, and your trainer gets it."

I'm not going down that easily, I think, grinning to myself. I lift my foot and slam it as hard as I possibly can, maybe harder considering the situation, on top of Viper's foot. You can imagine the reaction.

"YEEOWWW!!!!!" I run off, standing by my loyal Squirtle's side.

"*Nice work, Dee, I'll remember that move,*" comments Squirtle, slightly startled at my simple yet efficient maneuver.

I grin. "Like it? I learned it from a self defense assembly they had at school. Good thing I put off my trainer's leave for it."

"*Trainer's leave?*"

"I'll explain later. Dextra, have you called for help yet?"

"Of course I tried, my call won't get through!"

"Try again, Dextra! Squirtle, go try and take out that Ekans!"

"*Way ahead of you,*" he shouts. The black ekans wraps its body around Squirtle, trying to squeeze the life out him; Squirtle retaliates by biting right into it. It wasn't an actual bite attack, but it worked. Resourceful little thing, ne?

"Venom! Poison Sting!!! Kill that little wretch of a pokemon! And poison its trainer NOW!!!" Judging by the tone of his voice, Viper sounds *pretty* angry.

"Deena calls Pidgey!" I throw out another red and white sphere and hope for the best as the reddish energy takes the form of Pidgey. Hey, bad guys use more than one pokemon all the time, why not let the good guys bend the rules once in a while? Especially since the good guys *are* the victims...

"And Viper calls for backup!" He slaps on one of those incredibly scary maniacal grins and presses a tiny button on his watch. Instantly, a crowd of people wearing black uniforms appear all around us. About that "good guys being the victims" thing...

"Okay, I geuss maybe we're just a *little* outnumbered. Squirtle, try Bubble attack to even the odds!" Nodding, Squirtle spits out a whole bunch of bubbles from his mouth. Each one hits one of the guys, but they brush the bubbles away as if they were nothing. Memo to myself, train with Squirtle's Bubble attack...-.-;;

"So, you want to play rough, huh? Go, Death!" That doesn't sound good...

From my knowledge, the pokemon Viper called out was an Arbok. Except this one had the same wierd color patterns as the Ekans. Before I could do anything, the Arbok coils itself and jumps using a spring-effect. That's some funky training Viper did; of course, I could've thought of that. "Pidgey, try an airborne Tackle!" She does as I command, but, faster than my eyes could even fathom to imagine, Death has Pidgey wrapped like a birthday present. Now is a good time to panic. "Squirtle, use Rage! Give it everything you've got!" Time for me to do my thing, too. I sprint over to Viper and give him a nice punch in the face. "Oh, YES! That felt good..." Then a bunch of Serpents grab my arms and try to pin me down, and I get started with my self-defense stuff.

Squirtle dishes everything out; he bites, he kicks, he slices, he dices...and he gets exhausted and ends up getting wrapped by Venom. Meanwhile, I'm punching and kicking every green "S" I see, and then I find that's not helping the situation much. So much for that self-defense...-.-;;

Just before I black out from one of the Serpents knocking me into unconciousness, I see a blond-haired figure with the most gorgeous brown eyes staring at the destruction from the treetops...

***

"Hey...are you all right?" Wha...? Hey! What happened? Wasn't I just beating the fluff out of a bunch of Serpent Squad members?

Suddenly, everything comes back to me in a dizzying rush. I try to get up, but the spinning room wouldn't allow it. Ahh, well, at least I could open my eyes...my vision's blurry at first, but then I see the blond-haired guy gazing at me, though this time he's on the ground. Unless my vision is decieving me, of couse, which very well could be happening.

A thought comes to my head...where's Squirtle and Pidgey? A billion bad things could've happened to them! I try to move, but my body just doesn't seem to agree with my mind. Can I talk? Let's see...I try to say "Where are my Pokemon?" and end up saying something like "Errg..."...Nope, geuss I can't talk either.

"I'll try the phone again," says a familiar voice. Dextra! At least she's all right...

"Squirtle squirt...squirt squirt squirtle!" Ahh...geuss Squirtle's fine as well^.^;;.

"Don't worry, the Pidgey's already gone to get help, your trainer will be just fine," says the boy again calmly. I blink. He faces me. "Hey, don't move around too much, okay? Relax. Your pokemon are fine, Squirtle's just a little exhausted. You've done some awesome training for a newbie trainer; I never expected a Squirtle to learn Hydro Pump so quickly!"

Hydro Pump? Wait a minute...Hydro! That's a perfect name for Squirtle! I try to talk again..."Hy...Hydro..."

"Squir!"

"Shh...don't talk until we get you to the Pokemon Center." The boy brushes away a strand of hair that covers my face. "You'll be just fine."

***

"Thanks, Nurse Joy. Sorry for the trouble, I know that you're not really used to treating humans," I say.

She nods with her trademark happy smile. "It's all right, I've been treating humans more often than you might think. Just be careful next time, okay?"

"All right, I will," I reply, and with that, I head to the table where my pokemon and the blond guy are sitting. I look at him. "Before anything else, I would like to say thanks for saving me. Also, what's your name? I'm Deena Greenwater."

He smiles. He's kinda cute^.-~*. Then again, I DID say the same thing about Viper..."I'm Linxie Gigabyte, I'm from Neon City, in the Kanto region."

"His father was part of the team that made me," brags Dextra. "Professor Maple was the president, and Professor Gigabyte was the vice-president."

My eyes widen. "Wow! That's awesome! And to top it all off, your last name..."

"Yeah, my dad was an orphan, he never found out who his parents were," he smiles as he says this, "...he needed a last name, and he knew someday he would be working with electronics, so Gigabyte was a perfect name for him."

His dad was an orphan? And a genius? Linxie's got a long walk if he wants to follow in his dad's footsteps..."My family's pretty normal, especially compared to yours. My dad owns his own little pastry shop back in Air City, and mom's a software engineer. My little brother's...well...little brother-ish. I geuss my family now is Squirtle, Pidgey, and Dextra." I sigh. Geuss I miss my blood family more than I thought.

He stares at me for a minute or so. His gorgous brown eyes hint a little bit of envy, though I can't tell very well; I've never been much of a soul searcher.^.^;; "Think I can join your family?"

Wha...?!? "What do you mean?"

"I mean, can I go with you on your training journey? It get's pretty lonely out there all alone, without any humans to talk to other than the occaisional Nurse Joy or trainer. You make a whole lot of friends, but you never know if you'll ever see them again."

I know exactly how this guy feels...after all, I've only got Dextra and Squirtle to keep me company 24/7. It would be nice to have a human friend to talk to once in a while..."Sure, you can join us. The more the merrier!" I smile. Hopefully, Linxie has a better sense of direction than Dextra.

He returns the smile. "Thanks."

"*Uh...Deena...I feel...wierd...*" Pidgey starts to glow; she's evolving! Within a few heart-wrenching seconds, she mutates from her small form into a larger yet more graceful looking Pidgeotto. I've read somewhere that evolution can drastically change your pokemon's personality, so I'm a little paranoid at this point.

"Pidgey, don't worry, you're just evolving," I say calmly; hopefully her evolution won't be so traumatic if I can talk her through it. Then again, is it traumatic for her, or for me? Maybe this whole evolution thing is freakier than I thought it would be, for me at least.

"*Woohoo!!! I'm a Pidgeotto! Don't lemme outdo ya now, Squirtle! I'm gonna be a Pidgeot soon, and I'll fly faster than your slowness! Ha!!!...ahem...yeah...sorry, got a bit carried away there...*" Pidgeotto flapped her new wings a little.

"Right...well, be careful with those wings, they're more powerful now. Maybe I can teach you Fly soon," I say. Methinks Pidgeotto will be just fine personality wise. ^.-~*

"*All right, time for you to name us!*" shouts Squirtle. Never a dull moment...-.-;;

"Okay. How about Rocket for Pidgeotto. She flies as fast, if not faster, than a speeding rocket." Pidgeotto nods in agreement; one down, one to go. "And finally, in honor of Squirtle learning Hydro Pump, I dub thee Hydro."

"*I dunno...,*" Squirtle says.

Linxie grins. "Hey, it was a pretty awesome Hydro Pump, I think Hydro's a great name."

"*Alright, Hydro it is! It sounds dashing...I'll get the girls for sure!*"

Rocket gave Hydro a deserving peck on the head.

"*Owchies! That hurt!*"

Rocket sighs. "*Take it from a girl, you're not getting any of 'em.*" She faces Linxie with an evil grin. "*But it looks like you're gonna do just fine.*"

We all left the center, Linxie and I both blushing madly.

*Next Episode: "Lost...AGAIN?!?"*