And Into Lavendar They Fell....

[Daisuke]

With an ecstatic glee that bordered hysterical, Lucky the Totodile threw himself steadily down the hill, stubby arms behind him, equally stubby legs carrying him into the ocean of purple flowers. Dai hesitated only a moment to release his stoic Metapod from its pokéball, assuming it would like the scenery, before following his Totodile into the violet fray.

They took a few moments to dive amongst the stalks, revelling in the simple joys of life. Lucky and Dai began a makeshift game of "Toss the Cacoon" with Metapod between them - though Lucky was often overbalanced by the larger pokémon. Although Metapod never said a thing, Dai fancied he could see a gleam of amusement in its eye.

{Lucky, Lv. 7, 2/3}
{Metapod, lv. 7, 1/3}
{Travel count: 1/5}

[Daisuke]

"You know," Dai said to no one in particular, fumbling a poorly done toss from Lucky; apparently his arms were getting tired. "You don't have a name yet." With some level of amusement, Dai was finding it easier to begin talking directly to the cacoon pokémon. Lucky he had never had trouble talking to, but then again, it was hardly fair to compare the very animate Totodile to the very mellow Metapod in his arms.

"Di di di!" Lucky responded, skipping over. Metapod just blinked up at the two of them.

"And... Well, what are you? Male? Female?"

"Metapod." The Metapod stated quite clearly, as though to make sure there was no further confusion over the issue.

Lucky and Dai just looked at each other, the former with some curiosity and the latter with a measure of exasperation.

"Right. Well, I'm sure the next Pokémon Center will be able to help me out there; until then, I guess we'll just call you by your name. So, then. Lucky?"

"Dai daiii?"

"What should we call him?"

Clearly very excited to be a part of this naming process, Lucky ran in three circles, repeating the same thing over again:

"Dai! Dai! Dai!" Until skidding to an abrupt stop and looking expectantly in to his trainer's eyes.

"We can't name him Dai, silly; that's my name! I suppose we could call him... Well..."

"Metapod."

Dai sighed with some exasperation.

"You won't be a Metapod forever, you know. You will change. You will. You - Will." He blinked. "Will."

Lucky nodded vehemently, Metapod stared blandly, and Daisuke decided.

"Will it is."

{Lucky, lv. 7, 3/3 - level up!}
{Will, lv. 7, 2/3}
{Travel count: 2/5}

[Daisuke]

With the newly-named Will tight in his arms, Daisuke headed down the path that wound through the purple ocean. He had a feeling that he would be very, very tired of the color when he was finally out of the valley, but for now it was a nice break from his usual suburban surroundings.

I wonder how long I'll be out here doing this before I stop thinking of things in terms of "what I'm used to?" It appeared he couldn't help it; for the past two days, Daisuke had been thinking almost non-stop about his decision - or rather, his ultimatum - at becoming a trainer.

Well - so far so good. Lucky and Will could vouch for him.

The hills behind the trio were still visible when Daisuke decided to stop for lunch. He put Will carefully in the field, laid out his jacket, and took out some of the food he had. A mix maid of nuts, berries, and dried fruit for him, and a few lumps of lord knows what for Lucky. Will did not have a mouth; Will could not eat.

Regardless, Daisuke offered the pokémon a handful of what Lucky was eating. Will looked at it blandly, and seemed to sigh with resignation.

"Meta. Pod." He stated.

"Well, I was just offering..." Dai replied, wondering at his own contriteness. Why did he feel so awkward around this pokémon?

Oh well, whatever.

{Lucky, lv. 8, 1/3}
{Will, lv. 7, 3/3 - Level up!}
{Travel count: 3/5}

[Dreamer]

A pair of softly glowing white eyes staired at the trio from amonst the flowers. Their owner, a strangly colored meowth, was motionless except for very tip of his tail, which slowly flicked back and forth. He took a sinlge step forward on the soft mosit grownd, claws drawn.

The focus of this creature's attention was the boy's Totodile-or rather, what it was eating. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but he was positive that it was better than what his trainer shoved at him. He remebered the Ratatta she had stolen from right under his paws and growled softy; freash, warm meat, taken from him at the last moment. With that thought buring in his mind he lunged, snarling like a jungle cat.

Meanwhile, not far away, a strange girl and her Totodile, Riptide, made their way through the sea of folwers. The pair seemed to be searching for something.

"Ghost! Ghost?" Dreamer yelled,which was closely follwed by a cry of "Dile!" from her pokemon. She sighed, shaking her head. How in the world had she amanged to lose her own pokemon? One minute he'd been there, sulking about the Ratatta, the next.....gone.

"Oh, where is that Meowth?" The girl grumbled, picking up Riptide. As if in reponse, a snarl carried over the purple floor of the valley. Dreamer's ears perked; she knew that sound!

"Ghost!" She grinned, and took off in the direction of the snarl.

[Daisuke]

Lucky heard the snarl before registering the black-and-silver flash that was Ghost. With a squeal he dropped his lunch and leapt backwards, staring at the intruder offense. Daisuke, too shocked to move, sat blinking at the Meowth. Will imparted his usual, bland opinion: "Metapod."

"TODIILE!" Lucky yelled at the Meowth, his anger coming more from surprise than injury. "Di to di to dile di!" The young Totodile fell into a rather lengthy speech, obviously chastising the incoming pokémon for its lack of manners.

"Pod." Will agreed.

{Lucky: lv. 8, 2/3}
{Will: lv. 8, 1/3}
{Travel count: 4/5}

[Dreamer]

Ignoring Lucky's rantings, Ghost shoved the last of the Totodile's lunch into his mouth. Not bad,not bad at all. He swung his head around, searching for more. His eyes came to rest on the Metapod laying motionless nearby; it looked like it would make an interesting toy. And thus, he trotted right up to will and batted him hard on the....head? Nose? It was hard to tell.

It didn't take long before Dreamer spoted the boy and his pokemon; they stuck out like sore thumbs in the middle of all the purple. So did Ghost, who was happily batting around a large green object. She couldn't be sure of what it was at this distance, but it looked alive.....

"Ghost, quit bothering people!" She shouted. As if in agreement, Riptide gave a loud cry of "Dile!" from her arms. Dreamer quickend her pace, hopefull that she could get to her Meowth before he caused too much troubble.

[Wild Pokemon]

((Growlithe and Numel, both level 10))

Two figures appear, meandering through the flowers as if they were lost. They certainly look out of place! A dark red puppy with black stripes and a cream underbelly, and what appears to be either a very small camel or a very large, colorful rock. It can't be a rock, it's moving... albeit very slowly. Its yellow and green, and it looks like a very small volcano on legs. What on earth could two such creatures be doing here?

[Dreamer]

Dreamer skidded to complete halt, a manuver that nearly sent Riptide flying right out of her arms. The Totodile began complaining loudly, but the strange girl placed a finger on her pokemon's snout. Almost instantly, she fell silent, tail twitching.

"Wild pokemon." Dreamer wispered, noticing the pair of fire pokemon that wandered through the purple ocean. She placed Riptide on the ground and pointed at the Growlithe, a grin spreading across her face.

"Rage attack." she ordered, and her pokemon obyed, lunging at her target with a loud cry of "Di-dile!"

[Daisuke]

Will, in all his stoic glory, did not contest being batted around at all. Daisuke noticed that Will performed Harden once or twice, if anything just to ensure no injuries - but other than that, Will did not so much as sigh. Lucky continued his ranting, unheeded.

It was the sound of battle that eventually caught Daisuke's attention. He whipped his head around to face the noise - there was a girl, battling a Growlithe, and beside it...

"Numel!" Dai yelped with surprise. Numel - or rather, Camerupt, its evolution - had been one of his father's most cherished partners.

"Lucky, look! Go get it!" The Totodile seemed annoyed that he would not be finishing his lecture, but when his sights settld on the Numel, he appeared battle-ready.

A pity he doesn't know any water attacks yet... The trainer thought to himself. Nonetheless, the Totodile was certainly prepared for battle.

"Lucky, Scratch!"

The willing Totodile leapt for its target, the claws at the end of his stubby arms glinting with previously unseen ferocity.

"Di DIILE!" That was a challenge if ever Dai had heard one.

{Lucky: lv. 8, 3/3 - Level up!}
{Will: lv. 8, 2/3}
{Travel count: 5/5}

[Wild Pokemon]

The two Pokemon both looked rather startled at the random attack, but they recovered quickly. The Growlithe howled with pain as it was slammed into by the enraged Totodile, but twisted slightly and attempted to dig its fangs into the offending Totodile.

The Numel was sliced into by the Totodile's claws, but that didn't stop it from emmiting an angry growl to intimidate the opponent, then charging in a full-body attack.

[Daisuke]

Lucky, having never been hit by anything before, was slightly surprised by the force of the attack. He staggered back a few steps, though he managed to catch his balance before too much damage was done.

"Luck, Rage attack!" Dai commanded, doubting very much that the happy-go-lucky pokémon would have it in him to be anything less than ecstatic.

To his surprise, Lucky's eyes glowed a somber red, and the omnipresent smile in that little crocodile mouth of his disappeared. He yelped a second battle cry and charged headlong in to the Numel, limbs and tail waving wildly.

"Metapod." Will observed; even he sounded surprised.

{Lucky: lv. 9, 1/3}

[Dreamer]

Ghost lept back; his toy had just spoken! Surpised, it was a few seconds before the sound of the battle reached his ears. He simply stared for a second..and then anger began to enter his thoughts. How dare they start a battle without him! He lunged at the cloest pokemon-which just happened to be the growlith.

"Mrow!" He cried, unleashing a scratch attack. In his frezy, he hit Riptide as well, who cried in pain and staggered backwords. Enraged, she attacked again, not careing weather she hit the wild pokemon or her trainer's Meowth.

[Wild Pokemon]

The Growlithe had been concentrating on digging its teeth into the Totodile, until a crazed maniac of a cat came out of nowhere and attacked the both of them. It blinked as the Meowth swung around randomly, and then took a few steps back, deciding to let the crazy Meowth and the angry Totodile duke it out.

Numel gritted its teeth and took it as the Totodile slammed into him angrily. It didn't seem like this Numel was one for showing weakness or pain, that was for sure! It growled again, then went to slam into the Totodile even as it charged him angrily.

[Daisuke]

"Lucky, watch out!" Dai cautioned, having seen the Numel's response charge before the Totodile had. Lucky managed to veer mostly out of the way, though the lumbering, camel-like pokémon clipped his side and threw him off balance. Lucky fell to the ground, tail thrashing violently in an effort to keep himself upwards.

"Lucky!" In desperation, Dai grabbed Will - who was lying innocently by - and threw him as hard as he could at the Numel's head.

"POD." Will clearly objected to this unorthodox move - but of course, things were entirely out of his figurative hands.

{Lucky: lv. 9, 2/3}
{Will: lv. 8, 3/3 - Level up!}

[Dreamer]

"This isn't going to work...." Dreamer said, annoyed; if she kept both Ghost and Riptide out and tried to make them attack, the only thing she'd end up with is two wounded pokemon. With a sigh she recalled Ghost, cliping the now-occupied pokeball onto her belt.

"Sorry," She wispered, tailtip twitching. "I'll let you out as soon as it's over. I promiss." With that taken care of, she turned to Riptide, who was ready to jump back into the fray.

"Rage attack!" Dreamer yelled, and the Totodile launched herself at the Growlith, clawing and biting. With any luck, the change of tactics would work.

[Wild Pokemon]

The Growlithe, who had been expecting the two Pokemon to keep fighting, was caught completely unaware by the enraged Totodile, and found himself, rather unfortunately for it, as its new anger outlet. It fell over backwards and lay on the ground for a moment, contemplating what to do next.

The Numel seemed satisfied when the Totodile fell over from its tackle, and was starting to look smug when something extremely solid conked it on the side of the head. It blinked a few times as it fell over, head spinng, legs in the air. It twitched a few times.

[Daisuke]

"MetaPOD Pod." Will huffed from his position on the ground. He didn't appear injured anywhere, though his ego might have been a bit bruised. He was, after all, a respectable pokémon - not some sort of projectile. Lucky pulled himself to his feet, panting slightly, the sores on his side bleeding just the slightest bit - but he refrained from attacking.

Daisuke threw a pokéball at the twitching Numel and bit his lip with apprehension; he hoped he hadn't hurt it too badly...

{Lucky: lv. 9, 3/3 - Level up!}
{Will: lv. 9, 1/3}

[Dreamer]

Dreamer seized the oppertunity; while the Growlith lay motionless, she pulled a pokeball from her pocket and threw it. It hit the pokemon directly in the stomach, sucking him inside. Riptide just stood there,panting, glaring at the pokeball. If the fire pokemon managed to escape...she was ready to continue the fight.

Meanwhile, her trainer bit her lip, barly able to keep herself from lunging forward and holding the Pokeball shut. Had she weakend it enough? Should she have had Riptide attack again?

[Wild Pokemon]

Both the Pokemon were sucked into their respective Pokeballs at the same instant. Goodness, they even seemed to wiggle and twitch at the same time! Both of them wiggled once, twice, three times... Then were still. It looks like they'd both been sucessfully caught!

[Daisuke]

"Excellent!" Daisuke exclaimed, running forward and grabbing the occupied pokéball. He wasn't even aware of the other trainer until he had scooped Will in to his arms, fervently reminding him what an excellent pokémon he was, and clipping Numel's pokéball to his belt.

It was actually Lucky who noticed her first - or rather, her Totodile. "Dile!" Lucky greeted with a wave, all energy back despite the marks of battle still apparent on his side.

Dai looked up, finally noticing the other trainer.

"Oh," he said, suddenly much subdued. "H-hello there."

{Lucky: lv. 10, 1/3}
{Will: lv. 9, 2/3}

[Dreamer]

Dreamer gave a loud squeal of joy, rushing up to the pokeball and releasing the Growlith. He simply sat there, staring at his new trainer....boy, she was a weird one! The pokemon had been hurt by the battle, but could still fight if called upon.

The strange girl released Ghost, as she had promissed him. He glanced at the new pokemon and groaned; that mangy dog, travling with HIM? No, he simply wouldn't tolerate it. with an annoyed yowl, he jumped onto Dreamer's backpack and worked his way inside, complaing loudly once he was curled up upon the collapsable tent, bags of food and other random items.

Dreamer approached her new pokemon slowly, then picked him up, smile widning.

"What should we call you....." She said, looking into his kind yellow eyes. The pokemon began wagging his tail and gave the girl a huge, slobber lick in the face. She giggled, the huged the Growlith tight.

"Kindle," She said simply. "I'll call you Kindle."

The newly named Kindle barked, as if in aproval. Dreamer placed him on the ground next to Riptide, who had finally noticed the other Totdile. She rushed over to him, and, as a sort of greeting, bit him on the tail.

"Oh, hi." Dreamer said, smile fading a bit. A human? she had planned to go it alone with just her pokemon at her side, but some other company might be nice....

[Daisuke]

Luckily Dai didn't realize the fading smile. He grinned shyly and offered his hand, shifting Will over to the crook of his free arm. "My name is Daisuke - but you can call me Dai. That's Lucky," he said, indicating the Totodile with a nod of his head. "And my Metapod is named Will. Pleased to meet you."

Will sat somewhat awkwardly in his trainer's arm, though all previous charign from the affront of his dignity appeared to have dissipated. He just blinked lazily out at the world, quietly observing the introduction without so much as a sigh. Perhaps he was bored.

Lucky, on the other hand, had decided that, since Kindle was getting some fresh air, well then by all means, so should that poor Numel. He tapped the pokéball containing the newly caught monster, and in a flash of neon light, there sat Numel, dizzy eyes glazed over, legs still up in the air.

{Lucky: lv. 10, 2/3}
{Will: lv. 9, 3/3 - Level up!}

[Dreamer]

"Dreamer." The girl said simply, ignoring the offered hand. Instead, she pointed to the numel and laughed. Immitating her trainer, Riptide did the same, though her eyes were still on Lucky.

Kinder walked up to Dai, sniffing his leg curiously. Another one of those two-legged creatures,but this one was different somehow; it lacked that bit of.....animalism that his trainer posessed. Still, he looked friendly enough. With that settled, the Growlith gave a playfull bark and began wagging his fluffy tail.

The noises were muffled by the backpack's thick cloth, but they still managed to get through. What were those fools DOING out there? Annoyed but curious, the Meowth stuck his head out of the pack and stared at the strange boy and his pokemon. This needed to be investigated further, he decided, climbing out of the partially unzipped backpack and onto his trainer's shoulder, where he stared at the newcomers with his pure white eyes.

[Daisuke]

Lucky suddenly realized with a start that the Totodile whom he'd greeted with a wave had her jaws firmly clamped on his tail. He yelped and thrashed his tail, but was afraid to do much more than that. He didn't want to hurt her, after all.

Slightly offended by his declined handshake, Dai covered his embarassment by laughing softly and righting his new pokémon. A girl, as it turned out.

"Poor Numel. I really think I'm going to have to call you Dizzy, just for that." The newly-christened Dizzy looked up at Daisuke with bleary eyes and heaved a resigned sigh. So be it.

"And this must be the Growlithe - you captured him, I suppose?" Dai asked Dreamer, smiling down at the pup. "Congrats!"


Of the group, Will was the only one to notice the appearance of the strangly colored Meowth - and he was considerably uncomfortable under its blank glare. So much so that he wiggled a bit, entirely of his own accord, in some attempt to - well, he wasn't sure what he was trying to do. He just didn't like that thing looking at him like that.

{Lucky: lv. 10, 3/3 - Level up!}
{Will: lv. 10, 1/3}
{Dizzy: lv. 10, 1/3}

[Dreamer]

Ghost grinned, pleased by the Metapod's movements. And should he not tremble; after all, he was in the presence of perfection! He flexed his claws a bit, preparing to pounce; the creature had made such a fine toy before, and the Meowth could se no reson why it couldn;t be one again. However, before he culd leap from Dreamer's shoulder, she grabbed him and held him tight. Yowling loudly, he stuggled ofr a bit before giving up and going limp. Humans.....

"Thanks." Dreamer responed, tail twiching a bit. "Um,nice job with the Numel....Dizzy, right? She's cute....." The girl trailed off, looking about nervously. How long had it been since she had a conversation with something that spoke English? Meanwhile, Kindle had pounded up to Dai's new team member and was barking at her loudly, pawing at one of her short rounded ears.

Riptide released the strange Totodile's tail, landing in a nearby path of flowers. She promptly stuck her head up and started laughing, still unaware that she had given Lucky a bit more than a friendly nibble. After all, she only wanted to play.