"Go pokeball!" Cheren shouted as he tossed a pokeball at a Purloin he had found, one of the few pokemon to catch the young man's interests. He and Snivy had nearly beaten the feline, but couldn't fully knock it out. For one of many reasons that Wade had read up on. For starters, catching a knocked out pokemon was borderline illegal; since it was basically kidnapping. If the pokemon is conscious when you catch it, it can make the choice to stay with you and let you be its trainer. If it were knocked out, you would not be giving it a choice. As such, most pokeballs can detect whether or not a pokemon was out cold or not. Another reason would be that you'd then have to bring the unconscious pokemon to a pokemon center, and by law, promptly release it afterwards. As to why you'd have to release a knocked out pokemon after bringing it to a hospital was beyond Wade, so he didn't look too deep into it.
The pokeball collided with Purloin, bouncing off the cat's head, before engulfing her in a red light. The ball then fell to the ground and began to shake. Wade could recall himself as a child, playing pokemon, hitting A or B with each shake in hopes it would help with the capture. Cheren's determined glare deepened with each shake, like the boy's take on the 'A or B, shake' technique Wade had so perfectly perfected… only to watch a pokemon video about how that method was pretty pointless. He still chuckled as Cheren's gaze could've set the ground on fire with how hard it was. With the third shake, the ball paused as it let out a white pulse, a sign of a successful capture; Purloin was now Cheren's pokemon.
With joy that could put a smile on Satan himself, Cheren gave out a cheer as he and Snivy approached their new team member's pokeball. After the cat's pokeball was retrieved, Cheren chucked the ball, and out came the cat. It sat down and stared up at her new trainer, reading the boy's face as Cheren stared back into the feline's eyes. The two nodded, Cheren knelt down, and began to pet his new pokemon. "We'll get you to a Pokemon Center once we get to Striaton City," Cheren said. Purloined 'meowed' and nodded before she had been placed back into her pokeball. "So, how was that for a pokemon capturing demonstration?" Cheren asked.
"It seemed like you were just winging it," Wade pointed out.
"Well… I kinda was, but my parents did tell me about how to catch a pokemon, so I kinda knew what I was doing. Plus Professor Juniper forgot to show us how to catch a pokemon before we left," Cheren then gestured towards White. "And she had wanted a demonstration, and I found a pokemon I wanted for my team. So it's a win-win situation," Cheren said.
Wade shrugged as the group continued walking. They left Accumula Town about a day ago, and it seemed like the journey to Stration City would take much longer to reach than Accumula had. Accumula was a two day trip of speed walking, a day and a half if you could run and had the stamina for it. Striation to Accumula and back was at least a week of speed walking, and Wade's group were going at a leisurely pace. The Gym Challenge hadn't started longer than a month ago, so they had time before the League conference in a year's time from now.
"Well, I'm glad you could find a team member," White said as she chucked a pokeball into a bush. Whatever was in the bush yelped before the pokeball rolled out. A blue arm flailed in the bushes as the pokeball sucked in whatever was inside. A moment later, whatever she had hit was captured. "That worked?" White smiled like an idiot as she quickly retrieved what she had captured, and let it out. The group blinked at what they had seen. Wade immediately recognized it as Wynaut, Wobbuffet's pre-evolved form. Wobbufet wasn't that bad of a pokemon, as it was a literal punching bag that could fight back. It could only really use four moves, but those four moves were very handy. It could counter physical attacks with double the power, as it could with special attacks. It could even take an opponent down if it really wanted to with moves like Destiny Bond.
"Say, you just scored a Wynaut," Wade chuckled as Cheren and Bianca's jaws hit the ground. "How'd you even see that thing anyways? I didn't even know he was there until now," Wade asked.
"He's been following us for a while now, and he's adorable!" Wynaut then blushed at his new trainer's compliments. "And I'm willing to bet you were following us for a reason, were you hoping for a new friend? White asked. The Bright pokemon quickly nodded, before reaching up for White with his arms. The girl squealed and picked up her new partner like it was a human infant, and rocked it back and forth. Cheren sighed, noting how lucky White was, but it was good to note that the girl had a sharp eye. Perhaps she could help point things out. What the girl had not noticed was a Genesect watching them from above, with growing curiosity.
While it couldn't have followed the group into a town, there were no hiding spaces, it did wait for the group to begin leaving town by circling the tree line around Accumula Town. It simply watched as the group slowly made their way through yet another route for the last couple of days, and now the group was stopping for camp as the sun went down. Genesect decided to go off and hunt something while the group wasn't moving. It hadn't eaten since last night, as hunting would distract it from its current point of interest… Wade's group.
The group hasn't done much of interest in recent, aside from not flat out capturing Genesect after 'defeating' the modified pokemon, but it was still good to keep tabs on the group.
Wade had returned to his tent for the night, while Cheren, Bianca and White sat around their campfire to tell spooky stories. Each of them were sitting out in their half zipped up sleeping bags telling Farfetch'd tales about various things. From Ghost Types being people, to actual ghosts haunting some random house in the swamp. "And the man had five heads!" Bianca said, wiggling her fingers to try and add a more 'scary' effect to the story. "Each head had no face, no emotions, but the woman could feel each one stare directly into her soul and-" Bianca stopped, noting that her story wasn't really having an effect on her friends.
"I think we're all a bit too old for scary stories around the campfire. We're all ten years old, not five," Cheren pointed out before sighing.
"So that's what you three were doing," everybody jumped when Wade poked his head out of his tent. Houndour poked his head out as well, before retreating back into the tent to catch some more shut eye. The three of them nodded as Wade crawled out so his lower half remained in the camp. "I probably have a couple of stories I can tell. Mind if I join in?" Wade asked with a hopeful expression on his face. It had been so long since he… Well, Wade never got the chance to tell scary stories at a campfire, sleepover, anything. With him being a friendless loser, it left no opportunity for him to enjoy such an experience… plus he was hoping that he could at least be friendly with these kids, he was stuck with them for the next year.
"Well, you've probably got a story we haven't heard before," Bianca offered. There was a knowing smile on her face, and it made Wade remember that he had told the girl of where he had originated. So far, it seemed like she hadn't told White or Cheren, which Wade was grateful and kind of proud of. It showed that the girl was willing to stick to her word, and let Wade tell the other two on his own time. "So, are you gonna tell us those stories?" Bianca inquired.
Wade nodded with a goofy grin coming on his face, he slapped himself before gathering a serious expression. It was going to be hard to tell a scary story if he was grinning like an idiot, afterall. "Alright there's this urban legend from where I'm from, it's kinda big there because of how much evidence there is of these things being out in the wild. Where I'm from, we call these things Bigfoot, other places call them Yeti, Yowie, whatever, but they're all basically the same thing. These are huge, bipedal apes that can range anywhere from 7ft to 12 ft tall, are heavily muscular, covered in hair, and walk almost exactly like a human does… they're also very aggressive," Wade smiled as he seemingly caught the children's curious stares.
"Just imagine you or me, I'm like 5'5* tall, and I'm taller than the three of you. So just imagine another me stacked up my shoulders, who could clear a huge road in less than five strides without even sprinting. Hundreds, thousands, millions of people claim to have seen them, tons of audio evidence, video evidence. These huge animals could even give a Machoke a run for its money with how tough these bastards are. A college student once got into a fist fight with one of these bastards and got his head sent clean off his shoulders!" Wade grinned. "They can be anywhere, even in these very woods."
It was then that Houndour, who had actually decided to stay awake, began to howl into the night, making the entire group's spines to shiver. "That's some folklore of where I come from, I've got no clue if there's any actual, real evidence of these things being out there. I personally wouldn't, since there's no proof beyond 'trust me, it was here.' No body, no bones, nothing. So I don't really believe in it personally, but I have heard the ground shake beneath my feet a couple times," Wade chuckled. "And watched a Deerling get its head ripped off by one of those bastards back at home."
"So you're saying you don't believe in those things, but then claim to watch a Deerling get killed by one?" Cheren asked.
"Well, you'll just have to trust me when I say it, eh?" Wade chuckled. "That's basically how most eye witnesses claim they've seen bigfoot. No footage, none that aren't recorded on a potato at least, no blurry photos, nothing. It's still a fun little thing to read into, like with the Native's little legends about these things," Wade said. If he were being personally honest, the legend(or myth) or Bigfoot was semi interesting, even if he never truly believed in such a thing being out in the woods.
"So, do you have any more legends?" Bianca asked.
"Well, let me tell you about Megalodon."
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The next day the group had immediately started making progress up route 2. The route was quite similar to route 1, where they were nothing like the games had described or portrayed. Route one was a series of valleys surrounded by huge, impressive clips that seemed right out of any tourist guide. Route 2 on the other hand, was a lot like a forest, which Wade was perfectly fine with. It was nice, serene, and quite a few pokemon seemed to be available if White's Wynaut was anything to go off of. Bianca even managed to catch a Lilipup despite Cheren's advice against catching the little canine.
Said Lilipup was constantly out and about, running ahead, running back and was pretty playful. Wade should've figured that a canine-like pokemon with 'pup' in the name would be energetic. Energetic was an understatement. Bianca's Lilipup had so much damn energy all packed into a body that was significantly stronger than a full grown German Shepherd, and stronger than a grown man for that matter. Luckily none of Lilipup's exerted energy was focused on any of the humans in the group, as the canine chose to run, jump as high as the roof of the forest, and constantly try to get Houndour to play with her.
Each time Lilipup would bow, a sign of play, in front of Houndour, the Dark Pokemon would turn his nose, and move to the other side of his trainer to walk by. "Listen kiddo, I like you and all, and you're pretty sweet, but I don't want to play," Houndour would say(or something along those lines), but Lilipup seemed hellbent on playing with the other canine in the group. Houndour gave a huff in annoyance, for the twelfth time in that minute, Bianca's Lilipup tried to nip him to give chase. Houndour pawed Wade for a bit, and his trainer got the message.
"You wanna hide from the cute little puppy in your pokeball, or in my arms?" Wade chuckled. "The mighty, strong Houndour isn't up to dealing with a little pup?" He teased before plucking Houndour up and off the ground. It wasn't much of a pluck, like the first couple of times he had picked his partner up. As it turned out, Houndour was gaining weight. "I think I'm feeding you too much," Wade's face gave way to a false grimace. "I might have to put you on a diet," Wade laughed when Houndour feigned fear at the prospect.
"Oh god, no please! I'm a growing puppy, double my portions!" Houndour yelped, which was all Wade heard; a yelp. Both trainer and pokemon had a good snicker at that, which caught Cheren's attention.
"I swear, it's like you speak Houndour or something," Cheren said.
"Nah, I just love Houndour, plus being a 'vet assistant' kinda helped with knowing body language. That or the series of Houndour yelps, growls, and whatnot are pretty telling of what he might be saying… though I would pay a lot of money to put a collar on this little man here, one that translates those growls and yelps into human words. I want a better understanding of what Houndour has to say…" Wade smiled at the thought. "Plus it would help if I could hold a proper conversation with my best friend."
"Hey, I thought we were your best friends," White said with a pout.
"Best Human friends, but Houndour is my Best Best Best friend, that's three 'bests' so you know it's a deep friendship," Wade chuckled as Houndour nipped him for that terrible joke.