Disclaimer: I think we all get the picture by now; Pokémon does not and will not belong to me. Only this story and some of the characters belong to me.

Chapter 9: Back on Track

Cael yawned as she walked along the trail. After catching the Nidoran and returning to the center to heal her Pokémon, she realized how late it was. At that time, the nurse suggested that she stay the night. She tried to refuse, but it seemed that the nurse shared more in common with Rin than she thought. The nurse seemed close to just pushing her into the bed herself. Why is it that everyone I'm meeting are so stubborn?

Cael just pushed the thoughts out of her mind as she approached Viridian forest. As she got closer, she saw a building sitting at the edge of the forest. The closer she got, the more she noticed about the outside of the forest.

The building wasn't a large building, medium sized at best. Off the sides of it were gates, shooting off in both directions as far as she could see. It seemed as if whoever was inside the building was trying to keep people out of the forest. The only way to get through would be to go through the building, or hopping the fence. Even hopping the fence would be hard, seeing as how it was being guarded by police.

Cael walked into the building, her mind blazing with questions as to why the forest was cut off. Inside, the building looked much more official, multiple desks with computers on them and more policemen blocking off the exit to the forest at the back. A man walked up to her soon after she walked in.

"Good evening, I'm John and I'll be in charge of getting you through this checkpoint today. To start off with, and get some complications out of the way, are you a Pokémon trainer or a regular civilian?"

Cael looked at John a bit confused before answering him. "I'm a trainer. If I may ask, why is the forest fenced off? And why are there police around the fence?"

"Due to certain circumstances, we have had to close the free passage through the forest for the time being. Now, as a trainer, I need to see your pokedex to confirm your identity."

Cael nodded before pulling out her pokedex and flipping through the features. Pulling up the Id feature of the pokedex, she showed it to John. John took the pokedex from Cael, looking at the picture on the screen intensely.

Cael opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, John snapped the cover to her pokedex closed. "Very well then, if you would follow me, I need to send a picture through to the other checkpoint, just in case you get lost."

Cael could only nod as she followed John to one of the desks, sitting on one side. John sat at the desk and started typing away on the computer. Cael watched as he worked, waiting for something more to happen.

"Recently the areas Pokémon have been acting up. It's a common occurrence, happens every year in fact, but this year seems to be the worst so far. Add that together with the fact that Karcel Ghent's daughter ran away recently, and some crimes that have been happening, and that's why we've had to boarder off the forest. Trainers can make their way through easy enough, but it's dangerous for regular people to travel the forest alone. So, we have a checkpoint located on both sides of the forest. If a regular person needs to make it through the forest, they either ask a trainer or we have one of our own take them through the forest. There we go, now if you'll follow me, I'll let you out into the forest."

Cael nodded and followed, leaving the checkpoint and finally getting into the forest. She looked around before moving, trying to see anything that would tip her off as to where the direction of the other checkpoint was. Finding nothing, she set off into the forest, not knowing where she would be going.

Time passed as Cael walked, looking around at the forest, trying to keep track of where she'd been. All that she could hear from the forest was a far off sound of rustling grass. The only thing she could do, though, was keep on moving and hope that nothing would come to hurt her.

About half an hour passed before Cael started to get tired. She sat down, looking around at where she was at the moment. All she could see were thick trees, no signs of the checkpoint anywhere. "Where could it be?"

A slight rustling in the bushes caught Caels attention. As she turned to see what would come out, she was suddenly brought to her knees by a force hitting her stomach. She recoiled in pain, looking down to see what had hit her.

Standing in front of her was a small green worm-like creature. On its head, there was a red, horn looking thing that split in two directions and stood out from its green body. Its yellow eyes stood out quite a bit from its body as well, Cael thought. The creature ran around her, as though it was afraid of something and she would be able to protect it.

As though on cue, another creature appeared from the bushes that the first appeared from. This worm-like creature had a yellow color to him and his horn had a pointed tip to it, unlike the others flat horn. Its eyes had a fierce look in them as the small bug approached closer.

Before the bug could get closer to her, Cael took out one of her pokeballs and threw, not knowing which ball she threw. After a flash of light, she found out that the ball she threw was the one holding her Nidoran.

The small pink Pokémon looked around, looking a bit confused as to where it was at the moment, before looking at the bug Pokémon in front of it. The Nidoran could feel that the bug Pokémon was an enemy. Knowing this, it started to glare at the small yellow creature. Responding to the pink creature that appeared in front of it, the small bug seemed to glare at the Nidoran as well, waiting to make the first move.

As the Pokémon began their stare-off, Cael pulled out her pokedex and fixed its eye on the small yellow bug. In an instant, the machines screen lit up with information on it.

"'Weedle: a small bug Pokémon which uses the poisonous barb on its head to attack its enemies. It can usually be found eating fallen leaves.' If it eats leaves than why is it attacking another bug?"

Before she could think of a response to her question, the Weedle jumped forward, thrusting its horn at the Nidoran in front of it.

"Rens, jump away from it!"

The Nidoran hunched on its legs ready to jump, but it was too late. The Weedle hit its mark, poking into the slightly larger Pokémon's skin. The Nidoran shook off the bugs attack, prepared to strike back.

"Tackle it Rens." The Nidoran jumped forward as soon as it heard her say tackle, ready to get even on the smaller Pokémon. The Weedle didn't have time to prepare before it was struck by the Nidorans head. The bug seemed to have a harder time shaking off the pain from the Nidorans attack. Before the Weedle could shake off the pain, the Nidoran attacked again, wanting to pay the bug back for hurting it earlier.

Watching her Nidoran, Cael jumped in as the Pokémon started to get aggressive with the small bug. She put her arms around the small pink Pokémon's stomach, picking it up before it could attack again. "That's enough, Rens. You need to wait for my order before you attack. If not, I'll just have to punish you." Cael then looked at the beaten Pokémon before her.

Seeing the Weedle in pain, Cael threw a pokeball at it, hoping to heal it in the next town. The ball hit the Weedle, and like the Nidoran, it was sucked up in a red light before the ball closed and started rocking. It didn't rock quite as much as the first time before the red light came on, showing that she captured him.

Putting down Rens, Cael went and picked up the pokeball. "That makes my second capture as a trainer. I'm on my way to becoming better, Toren."

A small nudge at her foot broke Caels thoughts. Looking down, she saw the small green bug that was hiding behind her while she was fighting off the Weedle nudging up against her. She bent down and pointed her pokedex at it, pulling the information about it up.

"So you're a Caterpie huh? Well, it looks like you're safe for now little guy. If you feel like it, would you like to come with me?" The small bugs yellow eyes seemed to shine when she asked her question. It nudged up against her again, giving her all the answer that she needed. Cael pulled out a pokeball, throwing it against the Caterpie and catching it.

After making sure that her new Pokémon were caught and named, Cael pulled out Rens' pokeball. She looked at Rens as he lay against a tree and called him back to his pokeball, drawing him out of his content peace. "Now, you be good in there, or I'll call you out and punish you myself."

Cael deposited the pokeball back in her backpack before continuing on. Before she could go far, however, she was faced with another unwanted thing in her way.

"Lady Cael, so I've finally found you." A large bald man in a black suit stood before Cael, holding a pokeball in hand in case he ran into danger.

A/N: Hey there, I'm back and I've got a longer story for ya. Again, a big part of why this one took so long was starting it off, but there are other factors for why it's so late. Frankly, Writers block is a bitch, especially when you have 6 stories going on at the same time. The next chapter should be sooner however, so look forward to it. Ciao.