A/N: Not one of my best chapters. Felix, your char's time to shine is coming soon.

Ch. 8: Turtwig's Tongue-lashing

Bryce stood up, Turtwig's pokeball in hand. He felt nervous, his first gym battle was about to begin commence in front of a huge audience and he couldn't be sure who they were going to cheer for next. He began to walk down the bleachers but before he could take a step he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder stop him.

"Bryce," Roxanne started. "Maybe we should let Stacy rest a little before you battle her."

She pointed towards her daughter and Bryce noticed the adrenaline from the battle wearing off, her breathing was fast and shallow and she was kneeled over. Her usual timid self was starting to show as Roark stood up and escorted her out of the arena. This was apparently expected, as people began to file out.

"You can try again tomorrow but in the meanwhile, I suggest you visit the Museum while you're here."

Bryce nodded and filed out with the rest of the crowd. When he made it out, he thought, "Where am I supposed to go now? I'm definitely not going to a museum." He wandered to the pokemon center to pick up a map of the place. He'd probably pick up a map of the region at the pokemart later on but he didn't felt he needed it at the moment.

"Hmm, Route 207, famous for Geodudes and Machops, maybe Turtwig and I can get some training done." He murmured before walking off past the museum to the north of the city. Wasn't much to see, a wide open plain, a small cliff face, and a pile of rocks. He looked on his map and read that it would lead to a trail going to Mt. Coronet, the peak which held Team Galactic's main base, publically known as Cyrus Castle. But in reality, it was only a shortcut and he'd skip a gym by taking the trail. Not only that, but he needed a bike going full speed or else, the rocks would crumble and he'd end up back in Oreburgh.

Bryce plucked Turtwig's pokeball off his belt and threw it in front of him, revealing the familiar shape of his faithful companion. She was standing as though she was ready for battle, her brow furrowed in concentration, her front legs slightly slouched as though she was getting ready to run. But when she saw her surroundings, she looked at Bryce with confusion clearly noted on her face. Bryce laughed, but was impressed by how ready she was, but then again, she was there when he challenged Stacy. "We're not going to battle today Turtwig, it has to wait until a little while later, so I thought we could train a little, maybe battle some wild pokemon." Turtwig nodded, they prepared to look for a pokemon, and maybe a trainer to battle when they heard the sound of impact, something had been attacked, or at least, that's how it sounded.

"Sounds like someone had the same idea, lets check it out Turtwig!" Bryce shouted before he sprinted off, Turtwig agreed with a, 'Tur!' and followed suit, as they got closer, Bryce noticed a small boy in the grass on his side, his skin tanned from the sun wearing torn blue jeans. He was on the ground against the cliff face, his blue hat towards his side with the initials PL. His backpack was in front of a bulbous pink pokemon with an abnormally long tongue sticking out. The pokemon was facing him with an angry expression on its face. The boy rubbed his cheek and slowly stood up, he had to be about 8 years old. He backed up against the cliff face with a terrified expression.

"What kind of pokemon is that?" Bryce asked no one in particular before pulling out his pokedex.

Lickitung, the Licking Pokemon. This pokemon uses its tongue instead of its hands which is twice its height. Its saliva can grip anything.

The pokemon's tongue suddenly lashed out and hit the boy in the face, knocking him to the ground once more. The boy whimpered and curled up into the fetal position.

"Hey!" Bryce called out to the Lickitung. "Leave him alone!" He ran in front of him with his fist pumped in its direction. Turtwig stood loyally in front of her trainer with a 'Tur, Turtwig!' In agreement. The Lickitung only glared at the turtle and lashed out its tongue once more.

"Turtwig, use Withdraw!" Turtwig nodded and folded its legs under its shell. Lickitung's tongue hit her hard brown shell and sent her flying into the cliff face, face first. Turtwig hit the rock hard and fell to the ground, unable to move. Blood trickled down from her forehead into the ground. "Turtwig!" Bryce cried before running to her side and cradling her in the nook of his arm. The Lickitung gave a satisfied grunt before gathering up the boy's backpack and walking off. Bryce returned her and walked to the boy's side, his face had a couple of bruises where the tongue hit him and he was twitching a little.

"Are you ok?" He asked him, reaching a hand out to the boy. The boy didn't move, he seemed ok but he just kept twitching. Bryce had never seen anything like this before, so he said to him, "Wait here, I'll be back!" Then stood up and ran to Oreburgh. A few minutes later, after he left Turtwig with the local Nurse Joy, he brought out a doctor who diagnosed the boy as, "Paralyzed, what you may have witnessed was a Lick attack. He'll be ok after we've given him an injection." He said to Bryce as he had two Chansey's carry the boy to the Pokemon Center on a stretcher.

"What's the deal with that Lickitung?" Bryce asked, still outraged at what it'd done to his partner.

"We've received many complaints about that Lickitung from many trainers. It responds to the name Lash, and a couple of months ago, a trainer from Kanto brought it out here in an attempt to train it, but apparently, it was too much for her. Ever since then, it's been chasing away the wild pokemon, attacking, and stealing from defenseless people, namely those without pokemon." Bryce nodded, it explained the lack of wild pokemon in Route 207, the Lickitung must have claimed it as its own territory. "Now if you'd excuse me, we have to attend to your friend."

He followed the doctor to the Pokemon Center where he picked up Turtwig and waited for the boy to wake up. After an hour, the boy woke up at first looking a bit drowsy but then started to look around with an alarmed look on his face.

"It's ok, it's gone, your in a Pokemon Center now." Bryce said

The boy relaxed before Bryce extended his hand. "I'm Bryce, I'm the one that found you, but I'm afraid it made off with your backpack."

The boy shook his hand but groaned at the bad news. "Aw man! My brother's going to kill me, all his supplies were in there!" He kicked at his covers before grabbing his face with his hand. Bryce grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him a little to bring him back to reality. "Wait a second kid, you need to focus, I need you to help me with something."

"My name's not kid, it's Justin!" The classic response. "And why should I help you?" He asked with a sneer. 'Ungrateful little brat,' Bryce thought, but said aloud, "I need to know all I can about this pokemon before it hurts somebody else, so I'm going to catch it, it can't roam around free with all the harm it's doing."

Justin laughed. "Like you can catch that pokemon!" He said before falling on his pillow laughing. "Maybe I should have left him there." Bryce murmured to himself, before shaking the boy harder than before. "C'mon Justin!" He shouted before the boy knocked his hand away with a scowl.

"Alright, fine then, I hope you get beaten." He snapped. "First, it opened its mouth and made this really loud sound that made me feel light-headed, I couldn't focus or nothing. Then, it flung its tongue at me and it looked sorta darker than usual. It curved upwards, hit me in the face, and my hat and backpack fell off. Then, when you came, it licked me again but it felt different."

Bryce already knew the last one was Lick but he didn't recognize any of the other ones. "Thanks for the help Justin."

"Whatever." He mumbled as Bryce walked away before calling out. "Don't die!" Then he started to snigger like an idiot.

A bit of an exaggeration but he was sure he'd live. Bryce walked out into the lobby, looking in his pokedex on what it picked up on Lash. "Ok, from the looks of it, Lash is male, and he knows Lick, Knock Off, Defense Curl, and Supersonic." He put the pokedex up and pondered. "But if Lash knew Defense Curl, then why didn't he use it? I guess he's an all-out offensive type of pokemon, but how can I use that to my advantage? Hmm, and apparently, Lickitung's can taste the air around them sort of like an Ekans."

Deep in thought, Bryce headed to the pokemart for some supplies before heading out to Route 207 to confront the aggressive Lickitung once more.

Lash was relaxing in a small cavern, hidden in the shadows of the cliff face, a smirk on his face. He was enjoying a lunch, courtesy of the weakling humans who were unfortunate enough to wander by. As he munched on a juicy Oran berry out of his most recent victim's backpack, he heard a familiar sound and with a satisfied smile, he figured out what it was.

(Footsteps,) He said with a smirk. Someone obviously didn't know about his reputation. He wandered outside, cautiously to make sure no one could see where he'd come out of before noticing a pile of Oran Berries. Still cautious, he got closer to the berries, tasting the air with his tongue, an ability commonly known among Lickitung. (Hmm, there was a human here, correction, the human's still here. In the tree next to the Oran Berry pile. Must not look, can't give it away that I know, and apparently, as soon as my guard's down, he's going to swoop down and attack. Hehe, too bad he didn't count on my supersensitive tongue.) He thought to himself. He opened his mouth and emitted a loud screech, a shockwave of sound following the attack. It went in the direction of the tree.

(Supersonic should get him out in no time.) He thought with pride. But to his surprise, it wasn't a human, it was Turtwig that fell out with an Oran Berry in its mouth. It fell on its back, eyes, rolling around in its head out of confusion.

Lash blinked in surprise. (A Turtwig? Maybe I was wrong. After all, Turtwigs do live around here, they're rare but not unnatural. I guess it was collecting the Oran Berries and was dropping it into this pile to eat later. I'll teach this new pokemon where it doesn't belong right after I have a little snack) Lash nodded, satisfied with himself at the deduction and moved towards the berry pile. Never once did it occur to him that he battled a Turtwig earlier in the day, or the fact that Turtwigs didn't have the natural means to climb up trees on their own. But once the pitfall trap, masked by berry scent was triggered, Lash fell in and felt a familiar bonk on the head, darkness surrounded him. That's when the thought suddenly came to him.

Bryce jumped out of the tree, heavy earmuffs around his ears as he picked up Turtwig who had recovered from the Supersonic by that time. He grinned as he leaped into the pitfall trap and picked up the now occupied Pokeball while Turtwig beamed down on him from outside the hole. He clipped Lash's pokeball onto his belt and called to her, "Looks like Lash won't be bothering anyone else anymore!" Turtwig lowered the rope from his pack and Bryce climbed out. Once this was done, they made their way to the Pokemon Center.

Fun Fact: Lickitung's name was originally going to be Tonguetyd (That's the correct spelling)