Amber stood at the edge of Route 30, staring toward Violet City. Just the prospect of entering the city, and then, maybe even challenging Falkner, was almost too much to bear. Her skin prickled with excitement, and she took a few seconds to take stock. All of her Pokémon returned to their pokeballs, ordered carefully so that Torkoal was first, and then Zel, followed by Cutter and Rose, and her four empty Pokeball's still placed on her waist. She nodded her head in agreement to her thoughts, and stepped out of the woods.
At first everything seemed normal. Sun shining all of that jazz, and then she started hearing yelling. The red haired eighteen year old stood very still, her head tilted to one side as she listened and looked around. The yelling was coming from close to the Pokemon Center. What was going on?
Amber made her way toward the noise, having already decided that she needed to go into the building to heal her Pokemon anyway; precaution that she would always take upon leaving a route. Now, however, there seemed to be something wrong. A man of middle age, large gut, and a balding head, was beating at some poor Pokemon that had the misfortune of getting too close to his cart. Upon actually spotting the Pokemon, Amber gave a small gasp. An orange Breloom was being pummeled by the street vendor!
"Hey! Leave him alone!" The man looked up, frowning.
"Lass, I don't know where you're from, but around here, stray's aren't tolerated too well, 'cept in Sprout Tower. Now, get off with you, you pest!" And with that, the old crabby man brought him broom down again and swept the Breloom, sitting on his butt, down the path. He stood up, looked over his shoulder, and then took off.
"That's kind of mean, don't you think? What did he do?" The man stared at Amber, as though she'd just committed some sort of crime.
"Why, lass, he's wild, and he was stealing things from my cart! He made off with a Lava Cookie before I could stop him, you know," Amber frowned deeper, and crossed her arms under her bust, huffing.
"So? That doesn't give you a reason to just go smacking him around. The poor thing was probably starving. How much was the cookie? I'll pay for it. Hmm…and a citrus berry," The man stared at Amber as though she'd really lost her mind, and then he shrugged, took her money, and sent her on her way.
Amber was not content to just stroll around the city and look for the poor Breloom, however. Oh no, she had a much better plan in mind. She fingered through her bag, pulling out two Pokeballs. She lobbed the first one through the air with surprising accuracy, allowing for the Pokemon to come out just a few feet shy of a tree. The second one she tossed gently at the ground. Both Pokeballs returned to her without any thought, leaving two pink Pokemon in the wake of their blindingly bright lights.
"Cutter, I'm going to ask you to find that Pokemon for me. It's an orange Breloom. Think you can handle that?" Cutter bobbed up and down in the air, leaves spinning as he high tailed it off to find the orange Pokemon. Amber knelt down and picked up the other pink creature, placing it on her shoulder. "Well Rose, looks like we've got our work cut out for us. Let's go and find some apples first, shall we?" Amber started walking, looking around Violet City carefully. She had just reached the outskirts when, lo and behold, she spotted an apple tree.
"Okay Rose! Use String Shot on six of those apples!" The little Wurmple bobbed her head up and down, curving her body around her trainer's neck carefully, and then shooting the sticky webs at the apples, effectively getting a bundle of them together. Amber grinned and picked up the two bundles of apples that had fallen, and sorted the webbing away. She placed the apples in her bag and stood up, going to hunt down Cutter.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned Hoppip was busy in Sprout Tower. He had tracked the rogue Breloom to it, and was now trying to find him within the maze. Every now and then he paused by a window and used Synthesis, just to make sure that his hit points where up, in case he got hit with a surprise attack by some random Pokemon. None appeared though, and Cutter was almost to the top when he spotted the orange Pokemon sitting against a pillar. "Hip?" Cutter landed on the ground and walked over to the other Pokemon, smiling at him. "Hopip!" He offered a leaf to the other grass type, and the Breloom shook his leaf, it was like a handshake.
"Breee….breloom?" Cutter jumped up into the air quickly a few times and then turned, flying back downstairs much faster than he had come up. The contents of the conversation had been been "hello" followed by "hi….do you have a trainer?" to which Cutter had been nodding to, and then he flew off to find said trainer.
Amber had about given up her search for the Pokemon when he ran right into her. "Hip! Hopip, hop, hip!" Amber inclined her head, but soon found herself being pushed in the back by a very determined Cutter.
"Okay, okay! Calm down, Cutter. Did you find him?" Cutter zoomed toward Sprout Tower, bouncing up and down in the air. "I'll take that as a yes," And with that, Amber was left to run after her Pokemon into the tower. The trainers inside did not take to kindly to seeing a young woman chasing after a Hoppip, and a few elderly people even got in her way, telling her to "leave the poor thing alone, you're scaring her!" to which Amber had been forced to respond to.
"It's him, and he's mine. Cutter!" The Hoppip stopped and turned back, looking all together impatient with his trainer. Amber rolled her eyes, pulling away from the elderly couple that had stopped her and bounding up the stairs, Rose hanging onto her shoulder as best as she could.
"Hip! Hopip, hop, hip! Hoppip!" Amber stopped at the top of the last set of stairs, bent over and panting. Rose crawled off of her trainer's shoulder and toward the Breloom, and Cutter floated to her bag, taking out an apple.
"Yeah…You guys…go make nice…while I…die…of oxygen….deprivation," she collapsed onto the wood, laying there and panting for a few minutes before finally sitting up. The Breloom was munching on an apple and watching her carefully. He had a small cut on the side of his face and a few marks from where people had hit him and just thoroughly abused him. Amber dug around in her bag, rolling two apples to her two Pokemon before taking one out for her to eat herself. She'd give one to Torkoal and Zel later. "Hey, come here boy, I'm not going to hurt you, I swear," She held out her hand, and Rose, dragging her apple in a net of string, came to her and continued eating, and Cutter did as well, perching by her side and eating. The Breloom looked around, and, not seeing anything that would hurt him (other than the apples), he approached, putting his free hand in hers. "There now. You can come with us if you want, or you can stay here," Amber watched as the shiny Pokemon made a face. No, definitely didn't want to stay here. He nodded, and Amber pulled out one of her free Pokeballs and enlarged it, clicked it, and…"Well, looks like we have a new team mate guys," She let the Breloom back out, and, though he was still weary, he sat down on the other side of Cutter and resumed eating his apple. "And looks like you have a friend there, Cutter," Cutter bounced up and down in agreement, and Amber laughed, patting the Hoppip on the head.