[Serena Miller]

Classes were done for the day, and Serena was already getting cabin fever.  The inside of the school was nice, but nothing could compare to the outdoors.  As the days went on, she found herself spending more and more time outside.  If this trend continued, she'd probably only go inside to sleep and attend classes.  Even if the mountains outside her dorm weren't exactly her preferred terrain, it was still a nice place to go for a walk.  She even let all of her Pokemon join her, though Tear, the clauncher, preferred to be carried in this kind of environment.

While she had intended for her walk outside to be a quick one, it didn't end up that way.  Before she realized how long she had been walking around, she was already about a third of the way around the base of the mountain, and considering how big this mountain was, well she had clearly been walking for a long time.  Fortunately, she didn't really have anything else she needed to do today, and if that changed, she could always fly back fairly quickly.  For now, she would just continue enjoying her walk without worrying about anything...too much.

((Prefer Axew))

[Eri]

Third time's the charm, huh?




Species: Axew
Gender: Female
Ability: Mold Breaker
~Moves~
Slash
Dual Chop
False Swipe
Dragon Dance

[Serena Miller]

As Serena continued to walk, she noticed a small cave in the side of the mountain.  Curious, she cautiously walked towards it, and while her Growlithe followed suit, her Aerodactyl really didn't and started loudly stomping on the ground as she quickly ran over to the cave.  A couple of startled Pokemon ran out of it, but one stayed behind and glared at Serena and her group of Pokemon.  Its stance was firm and it looked very determined.  Was it guarding this cave?  Regardless, this time she would definitely successfully catch a Pokemon and not beat it up so much that it fainted before she could.

When Noelle looked like she wanted to go play with it, much like she did the last Pokemon she tried to catch, Serena quickly recalled her before she could do too much damage.  She studied the Pokemon for a second.  Everything she knew about Pokemon came from memory.  Her family (and most of the people from her hometown for that matter) were total luddites, so she had never even heard of a Pokedex, let alone had one.  Sadly, this was not one of the Pokemon she recognized, so she was going to have to guess.

"Um...Natalia, try Flamethrower!"

There was no confidence behind the command, and Natalia was clearly displeased by this.  Still, she dutifully executed the command as she always did.  The pokemon however, looked like it was not very phased by the attack.  It didn't even look singed.  There were some signs of damage on its body, so it clearly hurt a bit, it just wasn't as effective as it could be, and it still looked like it was too soon to catch it based on what she knew.

After that display of hostility, the enemy pokemon looked even less amused than it did before.  It rushed over to Natalia, clearly meaning business, and punched right in the nose.  Twice.  With the second punch, Natalia was sent flying backwards a pretty good distance.  Serena's eyes widened in horror, and even Tear, who is normally pretty hard to phase, seemed surprised.  The Growlithe looked dizzy for a moment, but quickly got back on her feet and was ready to rush right back into battle again.  For a moment, it looked like the Growlithe might attack again before even receiving a command, but as she ran past Serena, she slowed down and stopped again.  There were some signs of frustration in her body language, but in the end, she decided to wait.

This was a hard choice for Serena, because if Natalia got hit by an attack like that again she could be seriously hurt.  The next attack just had to either make it faint, or put it in a state where she could catch it.  The latter was preferable, but she was worried about her Growlithe after taking a hit like that.  If fire wasn't good to use against it she had to use something else, and it couldn't be too weak.  As nice as it would be to use weak attacks to chip at its stamina until she could catch it, she couldn't risk the friends she had already.

"U-Um..." there was more hesitation in her voice than usual.  "Um...u-use Crunch!"

Natalia leaped towards it and took a good bite out of it.  It was able to knock her away after a moment, but the damage was done.  The Pokemon was still standing though, and even though it was not running quite as well as it was last time, it was clear that the Pokemon was getting ready to hurt Natalia again. Serena fumbled through her bag for a moment and grabbed a pokeball.  She tossed it at the Pokemon right before it could execute its attack, and held her breath while the ball wiggled in place for a moment.  This was the moment of truth.  Either she was going to catch it or she would fail (again) and this time Natalia would suffer for it.  Fortunately, after a few seconds the ball stopped moving and she successfully caught her first Pokemon.  Smiling widely, she swept her Growlithe off her feet and hugged her tightly before even picking up the ball.  The Growlithe flinched, looking a little pained still.

"Oh, um...sorry."  She still carried the Growlithe, but kept her grip loose.  "We should get you back home."

With that, she grabbed the pokeball with her first catch in it, and let out Noelle so she could fly them back to the dorm.