[Finley Morrow]

The weather was nice - not too hot, not too cold, crisp from the rain the day before. Finley’s shoes were caked in mud, but not in a wet and soggy way, and he still had plenty of dry clothes and warm food. Today would have been a fine day - a great day, even, had not Finley woken to find both Riparian and his berry pouch missing.

Perhaps something had come into the cave they were sleeping in, snuck past both Brian and Diem, got into his backpack, stole the pouch, and stole off with the magby without any kind of struggle. Perhaps the new pokemon he’d just caught and knew little about ran off with it, Curse of my New Evil Pokemon style (“I give you a name and you betray me, oh Bubbles why?!” He’d finished the book last night and the convoluted plot was still very much on his mind). Or, and this Finley pegged as the most likely, something stole the pouch but did wake the magby, and so Riparian gave chase (but didn’t think to wake anyone else up)

Whatever the case, he had a pokemon to locate. Finley, Brian, and Diem stomped through the forest, calling out for Riparian and probably scaring off any wild pokemon. Diem suddenly took a sharp right turn into some bushes. Finley followed her with his eyes, thinking the pokemon’d found a shiny object or something, but before long, the shaking of the bushes melded with the wind and the pokemon was lost.

“Diem?” Finley called, to no response. A breath caught in Finley’s throat. Had he lost two thirds of his team in only two hours?

A high-pitched screech echoed off the trees to his left. About ten feet away, from the branches and leaves burst his two pokemon. They looked like they’d seen death itself as they sprinted for their trainer. Upon reaching Finley, each small pokemon took a leg to latch onto.

Brian’s fur was on end, and Finley could hear something else coming their way. What had so frightened his pokemon?

RNG's Choice! : D

[Kitten4u]

Behold!



Species: Cottonee
Gender: Female
Ability: Prankster
~Moves~
Giga Drain
Poison Powder
Absorb
Endeavor

[Finley Morrow]

… It was a little ball of fluff with two leaves sticking out of its head. The pokemon was making some growing sounds and was floating very… menacingly, he guessed. He was going to have to work on his pokemon’s bravery and discerning what was a threat from what wasn’t.

Finley located his mankey up in the branches of a nearby tree. “Brian, let’s see an ice punch, like yesterday!” Finley commanded, but to add a little flair, added, “Drop down, use the momentum to add some power to it!” Brian gave it a try. Leaping from the tree, the mankey used gravity and came down on the wild pokemon hard. A moment after the impact, ice burst out from his fist.

Finley put a hand to his chin. “That was almost right.” Brian jumped back and gave his trainer a look of “I thought it was great”. “But see if you begin the ice mid-air then ice shards will go flying back as you-”

The wild pokemon cut Finley off as she reminded him they were still in battle. She wasn’t very nice about it - her big, cute eyes bore holes into Brian as she began absorbing the life force from him. Brian reacted with his good old standby and cross chopped the little pokemon. Finley watched the moment of his pokemon carefully.

“You know, this gives me an idea.” He said as he dropped his backpack to the ground and began rummaging through it. Sketchbook, pencil - Brian snorted. He was pointing at the unconscious pokemon. “You want me to catch her?” He asked. The mankey nodded.

One of the pamphlets he’d been given when he began school here did say to catch as many pokemon as he could. Finley threw a pokeball, and a moment later, it clicked.

Cottonee Caught!