Zach yawned. It was a pretty hot day, so the first thing he'd done was taken Riley, His new Buizel, for a swim in the creek. The sleek weasel Pokemon was bobbing up and down, floating with only his head sticking out. Zach giggled.

Riley was climbing out and getting ready to jump back in when he tackled Zach into the creek.

"Hey!" Zach protested as he swam to the surface.

Riley's body shook with his laugh. Well, at least the water was good for cooling off on such a hot day!

He took off without even waiting for Zach to completely get out of the water, obviously excited. He stopped, turned around, jumped up and down a few times as if telling his trainer to hurry up.

"Okay, Okay, Calm down!" Zach climbed back out of the water. He sprinted over to his friend.

"What?" Zach asked, looking at Riley.

Riley growled playfully. He seemed to be pretty excited to set off on their Pokemon journey. He bounced around a few more times and ran in a circle around his trainer.

That was when a girl walked by - a girl with blonde hair tied in pigtails. She was probably about two years younger than Zach, and was the Professor's daughter. "Hey!" she called. "You're late!"

"Huh?" Zach replied absent-mindedly. He obviously had no idea what was going on.

"Bui?" Riley mimicked his trainer playfully.

The girl sighed and put her hands on her hips. "You are such an idiot," she said disdainfully. "Your uncle wants you to be a trainer, so he arranged some big surprise for you at the Professor's lab. I mean, come on. Not even your mom wants two rangers in the family."

Riley stared up at the two humans, not quite understanding what was going on but could really careless as long as they were going to travel soon.

Zach groaned. He wasn't that into battling, but he knew better then to argue if his mom was in on this. He wasn't afraid of many things, but unfortunately his mom was one of them.

Why does HE get to be cool?! He thought.

"Come on, Riley," Zach sighed submissively and started walking to the lab.

The girl smiled in satisfaction and followed.

Seeing the unhappy look on Zach's face, Riley attempted to cheer him up by rubbing his fur against his leg. "Bui!" he chirped, sprinting off down the road. The lab was just up ahead, a rather glassy-looking structure surrounded by rose bushes. Riley was careful not to get poked by any of them as he ran to the building.

A tall man wearing a simple white labcoat stood at the entrance. He had thick brown hair and a small mustache. Although he looked quite imposing, his voice was level and kind.

The girl ran to her father. "Daddy! I finally got Zach to come!" she said happily.

The Professor patted his daughter and turning to Zach, said, "Well, what are you waiting for, my boy? Come on in."

Zach stepped into the laboratory. All of the machines intimidated him. He shivered, feeling rather small.

"Buizel!" Riley squeaked confidently.

That perked Zach up a bit. He stood, waiting for the professor to say something.

The Professor led Zach to a small room decorated with slightly fewer machines, and seated him at a table in the center. "I understand you're starting on your journey, yes?" he said, and not waiting for a reply, continued, "Well, you can't start a journey without your PokeDex."

He rifled through a suitcase and pulled out a shiny, new PokeDex. Grinning, he handed it to Zach. "But that's not it. It was your original dream to be a Pokemon Ranger, yes?" he said mysteriously.

Staring straight at Zach, his blue eyes were hard and piercing.

"Uh, Yes Sir..." Zach replied nervously. Riley took the pokedex from Riley's hand and waved it around above his head, excited.

"Buizel Bui!" He chanted, rubbing against his trainer's leg. "Zel!"

The Professor stood up and opened a drawer at a table to his left. He took out a strange-looking device that slightly resembled a radio with an antenna.

He held it out to Zach, but before letting him take it, said, "I understand the one thing you want most is to be as good as your brother, yes? Well, I came to an agreement with your mother. You can try to learn the ranger ways but put Pokemon training as your first priority. Now, don't get too obsessed with this capture styler, and only use it when necessary, alright?"

The Professor grinned, and his daughter stared. "Wow, Zach! You're so lucky!"


((One thing - can you make your posts longer? You can describe things like how you and your Pokemon feel, what they're thinking, etc. Just try making them more detailed. ^^))

Zach stared at the capture styler, holding it carefully. Wow, He thought. It's a capture styler!

"Thank you!" He said.

"Buizel!" Riley squeaked.

Zach guessed this meant something along the lines of "I'm bored, let's go!". He scratched Riley's ear and said, "Okay, We'll go now," as he walked back to the door and waved goodbye.

The Professor and the girl waved good-bye as well, wishing you good luck on your journey.

As you walked up the road, a small group of boys your age came by and stared at your capture styler. "Whoa! Is that what I think it is?" one of them asked, mouth gaping.

"A real styler!" another one said. "Do you know how to use it?"

Unsure how to reply, Zach hesitated for a moment, thinking.

"Uh... Yes," He lied. "Yeah, I do."

"Bui?" Riley sounded confused at this. What is he thinking?

It's not a total lie, Zach reassured himself. My brother showed me some stuff...

Riley was absolutely sure this would end badly. The small, Orange-furred weasel suppressed a giggle. He knew Zach was fibbing.

"Well then like, come on!" the tallest boy said. "There's a small wood near the river somewhere, and I heard there's loads of Pokemon in there--"

"And some of them are really spooky!" another added. "Do you think you can show us how that styler works?"

Riley shivered a bit as he waited for Zach's reply. Thinking about Ghost Pokemon unnerved him a bit. Hopefully they'll meet some friendly, Grass critters instead.

Uh-oh, Zach thought, This cannot be good.

"Sure," He replied, rubbing his cheek with the back of his hand, a bad habit of his. "Let's go."

Riley gave a squeak of excitement. Oh well, at least we're going somewhere!

Zach sensed the optimism and couldn't help a small smile.

The group of kids headed toward the designated woods, chattering excitedly to one another. Riley bounced off after them happily.

It took a few minutes to arrive to the wood, and gazing in, it was rather dark and gloomy compared to the outside. A Spearow flew through the air, screeching at the group.

"Hey!" one of the other kids said. "Are you skilled enough to get a Pokemon while it's in the air?"

"Let's try something on the ground first..." Zach replied, staring at Riley, who was dancing around happily.

Okay... what do I know again? You spin it like this... Zach started twirling the capture styler absent-mindedly. A circle of light formed in front of him.

"Buizel!" Riley commented.

Without noticing anything had happened, he'd sent the circle towards the Spearow, who was eating some kind of a berry and minding it's own business perched on a low branch of an oak tree.

"What?" He stammered, surprised.

The other kids stared. "Hey, you didn't do anything," one of them commented, rather disappointed. "That's no fun."

Another boy picked up a rock from the ground. "I know! Let's hit it with this. Maybe it'll do something then."

With a wide loop of his arm, he threw the rock. It hit the Spearow squarely on the head. Angry, it charged at Zach and the group. Frightened and without Pokemon to defend them, the other boys cowered behind Zach.

"Do something!"

Buizel ran around in alert, ready to fight.

Spearow, male, lv4

Zach sighed. He didn't really like battling, but...

I have to attack it quickly...

"Um, Use... Quick attack?" Zach told his Pokemon.

"Buizel Bui!" Riley agreed, getting ready to attack. The otter ran at an amazing speed towards the bird Pokemon, like an orange blur.

Uh, wow? The ever-clueless Zach thought.

"Speear!" The Spearow called as it continued to charge...

As soon as Spearow was low enough to the ground, Riley leaped up, lauching a Quick Attack. Their heads collided, and with a cry the Buizel fell back to Earth, landing nimbly and shaking its head a little.

The Bird Pokemon gave a loud screech, fluttering a bit in the air and then coming back for more. It was obviously even more angry. At least Buizel received less damage due to his bigger size.

One of the boys wailed a bit and backed off. "That's one mean Pokemon!" he commented quite ironically, especially since it was he who had angered the Spearow with the rock.

Spearow: 82% (aggressive)
Buizel: 90%

"Use Quick Attack again!" Zach commanded his Buizel faster this time.

"Bui!" A slightly dizzy Riley agreed as it charged at the enraged Spearow with blinding speed again. It turned and ran up the side of a tree and onto a branch.

"What are you doing?" Zach thought without really thinking.

The orange-furred weasel used the branch to propel itself at the Bird from above, possibly even faster then before...

The Spearow was accustomed to it launching the aerial attacks, not the opponent. Therefore, it was caught way off-guard when an orange blur, much larger than itself, came crashing down upon it. Buizel had crashed down upon it, using its full bulk, and nearly crushing the small bird's body. Spearow lay under Buizel, stunned, until it remembered that it was in a fight, and this <spearow swear> was taking up his personal airspace. Ooh, this orange fuzzy blob, whatever it was, would pay.

Spearow twisted around with surprising dexterity for a flattened little bird, and drove its beak, hard, into Buizel's unprotected underbelly. Buizel shrieked in pain and recoiled, its arms reflexively going to its chest. The Spearow took this chance and lunged forward with its talons, missing the arms but catching the fins. It sliced the leathery flaps partway, not cutting all the way through, but enough to draw blood.

The bird hopped back and glared at its opponent. If the Buizel knew what was good for it, it would run now. Then the bird would see to those idiot humans, especially the one who threw the stone. Hadn't he seen enough that one experiences severe consequences for throwing rocks at Spearow?

Spearow: 68% (aggressive)
Buizel: 82% (cut)

Zach felt sickened at the sight of Riley's blood and turned away, almost forgetting the battle.

"Bui!"

Riley's cry brought him back into the battle as he pondered his next move for a moment. Quick attack? Hmm...

"Sonicboom!" Zach called.

Riley clapped his paws together as he blasted a wave of sound at the Spearow...