Chapter 4

A chuckle came from the boy that slinked into the gym with the stride of a predator on the hunt. The large Grovyle beside him mirrored the sound, and from the gecko it seemed to be more of a sinister hiss. "Long time no see, Razzle. Having fun getting beaten around?" With a burst of hidden endurance, Razzle huffed once and got back to his feet, the purple aura forming around his body the first sign of another confusion attack.

"Razzle, what are you doing? You can't attack him!" Mipsy exclaimed when she saw the aura's glow warp, but it was too late, the psychic blast was headed for the other trainer. But instead of hitting him, his Grovyle jumped in front of the boy and took the blast between the eyes, which had enough force beside it to send him toppling backwards.

Razzle slumped back down to his knees, "Mipsy, let's go. We don't have time for these two." He said, in such a bitter tone that Mipsy started forward, if only to remove him before he did something else he'd regret.

"Kid," the other trainer addressed her. "Were did you get that Ralts?"

"I found him. Route 102." Mipsy had picked up the Pokemon by then, and was calculating what the best means of escape would be. If she ran past him, that would look incredibly strange. Walking past wouldn't really work either, because then the Grovyle-who'd righted himself and now looked furious-might attack. She was stuck.

"Well, I'll leave him to tell you the story." A smile spread across the boy's thin face, and Razzle seemed to growl, "Good-bye Razzle, we'll just see how long this trainer lasts you." He then stepped aside, and made a motion that Mipsy could leave.

Silence reigned supreme until they came to rest in the familiar setting of the Pokemon Center. The smell of the antiseptic atmosphere seemed to revive Mipsy's voice, to the point where she could get out, through gritted teeth, "Razzle, that show could have cost me my trainer's license. That was so out of character, what got into you?"

The Ralts wouldn't look at her; instead his eyes were hidden under his cap. At first, he didn't look like he was going to answer, it was a few minutes until he said, "I'm sorry. For more than you know. That was Jason. And he's the only thing that has ever gotten me that angry."

He lapsed into silence for a while, but not after a long while, he was laughing softly, "Mipsy, you're the fourth person whose agreed to train me." Razzle continued, "And the only one who has ever managed to teach me to really use confusion. You'd better let Tassie out for this." The reminder made the trainer jump, and she followed the advice quickly. The cocoon was still a light purple, which Razzle chuckled to and said with some of his usual mirth, "Sascoon."

"Okay Razzle, explain."

"All right." The Ralts sighed heavily, "You're actually the fourth person to try to train me, but of course I already said that. People can't resist trying their luck on a Ralts, even if it can't use psychic attacks. I warned you when I first started to tag along that I couldn't use confusion, right? Well, you figured it out soon enough.

"Jason was my first trainer, and was a perfectionist. I wasn't his idea of perfection. He's probably the whole reason I have the confusion problem in the first place, because he always made me practice and practice what I didn't even know. He only trained me for a week until giving up, and releasing me. The next trainer gave up in a matter of one month, and the third trainer only lasted a few days. And then there's you. You haven't even caught me yet Mipsy."

"Razzle…" Mipsy sighed when he was finished, "I've only known you for a couple of days, and you're not a bad Pokemon. Maybe a little silly at times, but never depressed like this. You're my 'professional Pokemon,' so you don't have a Pokeball yet. Do you want one?"

"No. I hate Pokeballs. They're like little prisons. It's like, if you go in one…"

"…You'll never come back?" She guessed. Even Tassie pitched in a sound of agreement, "Oh… darn it Razzle, stop looking at me like that! You're not going to be thrown onto the street, or something to that effect to a lesser dramatic degree."

Her frown dissipated when she saw Razzle double over, and the way he smothered his giggles. "What is it?"

"Mipsy…" Razzle choked out, then his voice was lost to the giggles, "…you should see your face!" When her look grew increasingly blank, the Ralts began to laugh even harder. A sound like slight snuffling came from Tassie, and Mipsy soon found herself chuckling.

Some time later, they finally relaxed, and the trainer had to whip her eyes. "Why were we laughing again?" She asked, "That was quite bipolar of us."

"I dunno." Razzle shrugged.

"Well Mipsy, I'd have to say that she's a Silcoon. Normally the eyes are what you have to look at, do you see how there are two folds of her cocoon over them?" Professor Birch said thoughtfully as he got as close to the cocoon as his monitor would allow. "I've never seen a Wurmple evolution that shade of purple before… do you mind coming back to the lab and showing her to me in person?"

Mipsy's hesitation to answer was enough for the Professor, he guffawed good-naturedly, "That's perfectly all right. I'd better tell you… The Dancing Dragonite moved on last night, and they're going to be performing in Slateport in three or so weeks. If you travel north through Rusturf Tunnel, and set out for the Mauville badge, you'd probably make it to Slateport in time to see them." He continued, and the suggestion made the girl wince inside. She didn't really want to see those stuck-ups at The Dancing Dragonite until she had all eight badges to show them.

But then again, she'd get to see Marvin. That might make it worth it. "But isn't the Mauville badge the third one in the league?" She asked, "I couldn't even clear Rustboro's gym today."

"Well, you were trying to do that with only one Pokemon. Try to use Tassie sometime; she'll evolve far quicker that way. If you need another active Pokemon, there are always some people willing to sell them, especially in Rustboro, where all the beginning trainers panic when they haven't trained their Pokemon enough." The Professor was cut off when one of his aides called something out in the background, "Sorry Mipsy, I've got to leave, my aide Oliver just burned himself in the Torchic pen again. Good bye."

She hung up when the screen turned black, and glanced at Razzle, "We can always give the buying thing a shot." He said with a shrug. "How much money do we have?"

"Two thousand Pokedollars. That's not a lot." Mipsy answered, and chewed her lip thoughtfully.

As Professor Birch had hinted at, it wasn't hard to find Pokemon vendors. The first one was quite close to the Pokemon Center, though it only had a small table and a banner to show what it was. The banner read: "Pokemon for only 500 PD or less!" And the table looked promising with its small horde of Pokeballs laid across it. It was this table that Mipsy approached, and the man behind it quickly pounced on her with a jolly, "Hello little girl, is there anything I can interest you in?"

She had to stifle a chuckle when he grinned crookedly, in the man's dark face, his teeth looked comically white, like in the cartoons. "Yes… I would like to purchase a Pokemon." Mipsy said tactfully.

The seller's grin grew even wider; all he saw of Mipsy was another trainer that was desperate for a Pokemon to win against the first gym with, as she only had a Silcoon and a Ralts. "Right, well this row-" he gestured to the Pokeballs on the table's edge, "-have been marked down. The ones in the middle are for full price, which is still a bargain of five hundred PD. Go ahead and look at them all, if you like."

Razzle reached for a Pokeball in the marked down row, and rolled the first one off. In a flash of light, a fairly thin Magicarp began to flop around uselessly. Mipsy didn't even need to consult her Handbook on this one, she just returned it to its ball and sighed. Trying another Pokeball in the same pile, it turned into another Magicarp.

The third and forth ones were from another pile, and again turned out to be Magicarp, and promptly recalled. Mipsy gnawed her lip in frustration, while Razzle looked on and commented, "This table sure does like its Magicarp."

And the final Pokemon, for five hundred PD, was a spiked, toothy fish that Mipsy later learned was a Carvanha. Instead of flopping around harmlessly, it bit her shoe. There was no way she was going to buy one of these Pokemon.

The prices of the Pokemon in the later tables that Mipsy and her Pokemon found slowly inched up, until the man with the Zangoose and Seviper told them with a straight face, "Thirty thousand PD, no more haggling." The girl cursed not being rich, as all the Pokemon within her price range were… hopeless.

"What do you expect?" Razzle finally said, "We're living in an age of inflation and the concept of supply and demand."

"I know, but there should be some nice one out there…" She shrugged helplessly, "Ah well, serves us right for not training enough. Guys, we'd better go back to Route 104 and train some more."

In their search, somehow Mipsy and her Pokemon had gone around in a complete circle, and were now standing outside an old, mud-brown building that boasted antique stone shingles. An intricate sign was posted on the outside of the fence, which had the name of a trainer's school in curly letters. But that was not what had caught and held Mipsy's attention, it was the older woman that stood inside the fence, waving to get the trio to come closer. She wore a fine dress with several layers of wavy cloth, each layer turning a different shade of peach tinted pink, down to white. Her graying hair had been tied behind a white bonnet and into a bun, and revealed more of her triangular face.

"Looking through the vendors, eh?" She asked when Mipsy approached the fence, though didn't wait for an answer, "How much money do you have?"

And so Mipsy told her. There was a rustle of fabric upon fabric as a Pokeball was drawn from between one layer of cloth; "You may have her for two thousand PD. She's the last one I have to sell…"

She broke off with a thoughtful look, as if she said too much, it would be harmful. Mipsy blinked, puzzled by the offer, as she looked over the Pokeball that she'd been offered. It was green and white. Along with Tassie's ball, it would be Christmas colors.

Once tossed, the ball revealed a squat little Pokemon, who gave off the loud cry of, "Ross-lia!" It looked up at Mipsy, raising two arms ending in bright roses.

"This is Rose." The woman narrated, "She's very… sweet, if you get on her good side."

Mipsy flicked back in her Handbook, and found the exact likeness of the flowery Pokemon. "'A dual type, grass and poison, Roselia are normally found in rose fields like those around Verdanturf Town. A popular Pokemon for herbalists, healthy Roselia give off a very soothing scent. They shoot off poison barbs when their flowers are threatened…' And then it continues on to tell why Roselia are horrible, because they're too small to battle larger foes. Pessimistic handbook."

She bent down to be more at level with the Pokemon, and said, "I don't want your roses. Please don't spike me with poison points. Thank you." And then she scooped the Pokemon up and looked her over, though she didn't know what physical feature would distinguish a healthy Roselia from a sick one. A wonderful aroma wafted from her roses, and Mipsy relaxed slightly, while the rose Pokemon squirmed and glared. "We'll take her." She said woozily, without even consulting Razzle or Tassie, the latter of which quickly gave off a squeak of complaint. The vendor's wide smile was almost foreboding.

"Why in the world did you buy a Roselia, of all the Pokemon there?" Razzle translated Tassie's demand the second that Rose had been returned to her ball. They sat next to a fountain of a Milotic, water spurting from the stone Pokemon's mouth.

"Mmm? What Roselia?" She responded blankly.

"The Roselia… yunno, the one you spent all our money on?"

"What… I bought her?"

"Yeah." Razzle gave Mipsy a strange look, "Don't you remember? You were staring at her, she was giving you a death glare, and you said, 'I'll take her!'"

Mipsy looked down at the new Pokeball nestled in her belt. "No way." She groaned. "No way! This is so not cool!"

Her other Pokemon's gazes were blank, "Don't you know what happened? That Roselia's smell… charmed me. And the woman knew that, so she got all of our money."

"No wonder she ran off laughing like that. At least Roselia are grass types, so we can win our gym match."

"Well… let's just see what Rose can do. C'mon guys, let's go back to Route 104."

The only good thing about Rose was her type, and her strength. She could already use poison sting, which by the Pokemon Handbook was a level nine attack, so most wild Pokemon didn't stand a chance for long. Then, there came the faults. She didn't have wonderful aim, but that was much like Tassie, and forgivable. But then, Rose was also about as cuddly as a Cacnea, with the personality to befit something far larger and more dangerous than herself.

Absorb soon became a favorite attack, as Rose was forced to lash out in a kick-like fashion with one leg, scraping into her opponents side with roots. She even was talented at making it showy, shaking her roses in the process.

It was now Rose verses a wild Zigzagoon, and Razzle kept moaning about not having popcorn. "Poison sting!" Mipsy was ordering, while the raccoon charged at his opponent. The Roselia twirled away and, lowering her head, caught him on the side with three separate thorns.

The Zigzagoon took off, knocking loose an Oran berry in his haste. Before Mipsy could say anything else, Rose scooped up the berry and was munching it down. "So, shall we go to the gym for a rematch, then?" Mipsy asked her Pokemon. Tassie, who had been laid under a tree to rest, squeaked protest. "Does that mean you want to battle then, Tassie?"

A nod came from the Silcoon, or the closest of an equivalent of a nod that the stiff cocoon could manage. So, Mipsy retrieved her, and they waited, while the only sound that could be heard was coming from Rose. Soon Tassie was set up into a battle with a wild Wurmple, who quickly blasted a thread of sticky string at the cocoon. The problem was, that only made the outer shell harder.

In turn, Tassie got her cocoon to roll, until she was headed for the opposing Wurmple for a tackle attack. Then, it was like watching a slow-motion video, the Wurmple was inching out of the way as fast as she could, and Tassie was following, though neither of them had an advantage in speed. Rose began to laugh.

Tassie suddenly stopped, and the eye that was facing her trainer narrowed. She used string shot, but it was not aimed for the Wurmple, and instead hit its mark. The Silcoon began her snuffling giggles as Rose failed to get the sticky stuff off, instead succeeding in spreading it around, until one arm had been pinned to her side.

"Should we help her?" Razzle asked, the doubt apparent in his voice. The Silcoon said something, and he translated, "Tassie says that she deserved it. And that she's ready to return to her Pokeball." The only thing about Tassie in her new form was that she got tired rather easily, so Mipsy returned the cocoon agreeably before heading over to Rose.

"Lia!" She hissed furiously when her trainer gently began to unwind the string around one of her roses. Mipsy found herself relaxing again, so close to the Roselia. It might have been just the next second, or ten minutes later, but Rose jerked once, and the movement was unexpected enough that Mipsy fell forward, and found herself stuck very close to one of the Pokemon's thorns.

She swallowed, and murmured to Rose, "Relax, will you? I'm your trainer, for goodness sakes… Razzle, now where are you?"

"Right here." The Ralts chimed in. "Both of you hold still, and I'll help." Mipsy could just barely see him on the other side of Rose, and couldn't see if he was using his psychic powers, or just removing the string manually.

"Tassie owes us for this." Mipsy moaned when Rose began to squirm again. The next second, she heard Razzle growl.

"I'm stuck." He reported. "Now what?"

"Roselia…" Rose whined.

"We're going to have to wait for someone else to come by." The Ralts continued, "We must look so ridiculous right now…"

And so, Mipsy, Razzle, and Rose were stuck in that position for a long time, before the string hardened and became brittle enough to shatter under enough pressure. By the time that then returned to Rustboro City, it was getting dark, so the trainer suspected that the gym would be closed by then. They returned to the Pokemon Center, where Mipsy let her Pokemon be taken back for a checkup and some food, while she remained with the same group of trainers as there was this morning, and shared a meal with them.

The Center closed down at around ten o'clock, and Mipsy finally took a look around at the faces of everyone there with her. There was no sign of Jason, or the mysterious girl from before. She sighed, and dozed in her bedroll, thinking that her Pokemon had already fallen asleep. If they had, she soon joined them.