Finding His Feet [Training] [Closed]

Alexander chased after Amphion, the tread of his thick combat boots kicking clumps of dirt and grass loose as he pursued the golden ball of electrical energy. Amphion charged on undeterred, excited to finally have his first taste of the wild. He was going to prove to Alexander that he could handle surviving in the real world once and for all. As fast as the pokemon was, Alexander was no amateur; he had many years of tracking pokemon as a ranger, and the young Electric pokemon was no match for his seasoned legs. Tackling Amphion, Alexander picked him up by the electrodes on the top of his head and lifted him into the air until they were face to face. "Don't get too far ahead of me, dummkopf." Alexander snapped at Amphion, who frowned in disappoint before relaxing, allowing Alexander to return him to his traditional resting place on his left shoulder. "Now look what you've done. We're balls deep in Viridian forest. What happened to just following the path to Pewter city and battling pokemon as we went?"

(rolling)

The member 'Red' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Twenty Five Sided' : 1, 20, 16, 5

(Level 6 Caterpie, Level 4 Eevee, Level 7 Hoppip, Level 4 Spinarak. Splitting this into two posts, first post is Caterpie and Hoppip, second post is Eevee and Spinarak)

Alexander leapt off the ground, sinking the inner sides of his boots into the solid bark of a nearby tree, his right hand wrapping around a branch while his left kept ahold of the top of Amphion's head, ensuring he didn't fall during the process. He slowly dragged himself up the face of the tree until he reached a thick branch that could support his full weight, stepping onto it cautiously. From his new vantage point, Alexander could survey the environment properly and get his bearings. Mount moon sat far to their right, while the father tree, a gigantic oak monolith in the heart of Viridian forest sat directly in-front of them. It served as a sort of sacred location for the pokemon of the forest. Often bug pokemon could mass there in great numbers. Hell, it was because of this that the Brennenburg rangers would always ensure their patrol of Viridian Forest started and ended at the tree, as pest pokemon as well as simply pokemon not often found in the region would end up using it as a hunting ground, and if not managed it threatened to unbalance the native population. As such, Alexander and his pokemon could go there, train on some local wildlife and, if they were lucky, they might even find a predator or two to kill to help keep the area as in balance as possible until the Brennenburg Rangers reformed or another organization moved in. Alexander knew that a small group of rangers from the Mandus organization were trying to look after the district until the area was stabilized, but their numbers were too small for such a large area, and their experience was laughable if rumours were to be believed.

Scrambling back down the tree, Alexander placed Amphion on the ground at his feet, taking a moment to smile at him as he instinctually began spinning his arms in alternating Clockwise and counter clockwise bursts to build an electrical current in his system. "I know you're excited, but don't try to do everything on your own. We're a team." "Elekid!" Alexander began to walk towards the Father Tree, with the tiny Elekid bouncing a foot in-front of Alexander, his tiny feet scrambling to keep pace with Alexander's large, confident strides. The terrain they were traversing was harsh on Amphion's small stature, with Alexander having to lift him up and help brace him on several of the steeper part of the trek. It was understandable though, Amphion was only a few months old, and since he had to receive artificial supplements instead of the rich milk of his mother he was smaller than he should be. This was rather simple terrain for Alexander to traverse however, as he had been trained to be a ranger since birth. After walking for thirty minutes, Alexander paused to give Amphion a chance to rest his legs. He withdrew a handful of small cubes from his pocket. They reeked of powerful spices and chillis that went into their development, and as soon as Amphion smelled them he shoved them all into his face in a single gigantic bite before sitting there happily chewing his mouthful slowly. As Amphion ate, Alexander surveyed the environment. They were slowly getting closer to the Father Tree. Well, technically it was all around them. The forest was comprised of a single tree. The Father Tree's root system covered the entire forest, with every "Tree" being an offshoot of the same root system. It was simply one massive tree with a million limbs. The sound of a dry leaf crunching slightly caused Alexander's gaze to snap quickly to the forest floor, his eyes locking on a small green figure crawling towards Amphion. A caterpie! "Amphion, behind you!" Amphion looked up at Alexander confused, and by the time he realized the order he had been given and began to turn around, the Caterpie had launched itself at him, tackling into the side of head and knocking him back several feet. Amphion was knocked onto his back, and after flailing for a few seconds, he managed to get purchase and drag himself back to his tiny feet. "ELEKID!!!" Alexander stood there silently, patiently watching his pokemon to see the action he would take in response. Normally he'd give him orders, but it was just a Caterpie, if Alexander had to interfere he could kill it quickly and effortlessly. The Caterpie moved forward slightly, then froze. The pair stood there silently perplexed, until Alexander realized what had happened. Static. Elekid and Electabuzz were able to paralyse attackers on physical contact. Due to the Caterpie's small stature, Amphion charged towards the stunned Caterpie, dropping into it with a sharp sliding low kick. Amphion's heels remained glued to the face of the small Caterpie as he drove it backwards, eventually smashing it into a thick tree trunk. The dual pronged impact of the tree at it's back and Amphion's heel at it's front rendered the small worm unconscious.

Alexander picked up Amphion, hugging him tightly as an expression of his pride. He had without order exploited the environment to eliminate his opponent in a single blow. It was a beautiful strategy. As he held Amphion with his left hand, Alexander with his right drew his survival knife from his boot and plunged it into the head of the unconscious Caterpie. It would not see the light of day if left here, it would be torn apart by other pokemon. It was far kinder to spare it that suffering than to let it be eaten alive. Wiping the green blood off the blade by running it flat against his shin, letting the cloth of his pants act as a cleaning cloth, he quickly stashed it back into it's sheath before returning Amphion to the ground, where he examined him. Not so much as a bruise was left from the tackle of the Caterpie. It seemed the soft jungle floor had absorbed the impact, and as no sharp twigs or stones had caught him on impact he was in immaculate condition, with the exception of having a dirty dark patch of fur on his back. "That was... clever. Very nice use of the environment. You need to be more vigilant though, if I tell you something's beyond you, you need to move instantly. I don't want you to be hurt. That was just a Caterpie but it could have been something far more dangerous." "Ele..."

The cloud cover was beginning to break up, allowing the sun's might to pierce the forest canopy. The additional light caused the sounds of life to begin to increase all around the group. The chirps of flying pokemon echoed like thunder, and Alexander would often see a small Rattata or a Patrat dart past, or a Caterpie foolishly reveal itself by leaving it's nest underneath a tree only to have a Pidgey shoot down from the canopy and lift it off to become lunch for a family of chicks. Suddenly, the wind began to intensify. Leaves, sticks and small stones began to lift off the forest floor and fly about in scattered circles, creating a strange show of sorts for Alexander and Amphion. A wurmple was dragged out of it's hiding spot underneath a set of leaves and dragged along on one of these currents, shaking and spasming awkwardly in an attempt to gain purchase on something before being pulled out of the current by a Starly. "HOP HOP HOP HOP HOP!!!!!!" the strange sudden cry caught both Alexander and Amphion's attention immediately. The air turned around to face the source of the noise, only for a strange pink blur to smash straight into Alexander's face, knocking him over. "ELE!!" Amphion called out in distress, the electrodes on the top of his head sparking furiously as his arms rotated in an attempt to build up a powerful current. The Hoppip was knocked off course by the impact and smashed head first into a nearby tree. It fell to the floor before slowly floating into the air. Alexander had pulled himself to his feet, a small stream of blood trickling down from his nose after the sudden impact. "Son of a bitch... Amphion, Hit that little bastard with a Charge Beam!" Amphion leapt up and down on the spot in acknowledgement, his arms rotating at a mad pace. The sparks that were flying between the electrodes on his head intensified before suddenly vanishing. Two sharp beams of electrical energy, one from either electrode on the Elekid's head shot out, meeting in the centre and forming a sharp crackling sphere of electrical energy. This sphere compressed down to an incredibly tiny point before flaring suddenly, expanding to the size of a soccer ball. From this sphere shot a thick beam of electrical energy which hit the Hoppip in the back of the head, pinning it against the very tree it had just crashed into. "maintain the beam." Alexander ordered in an emotionless voice. He could see the Hoppip was already unconscious, but he wanted it dead. Amphion complied, and after several seconds of the intense beam being channelled into the Hoppip's soft flesh, the sound of splintering wood could be heard, signifying the beam had pierced straight through the creature and was now drilling it's way through the tree. "That's enough" Amphion stopped spinning his arms, and after a few seconds the electrical energy from the top of his head faded, the bright light it gave off to signify it's presence fading into nothingness. The Hoppip dropped to the floor of the forest, a wide hole carved straight through it's chest. The beast was dead.

(Word count: 1608. 10 words per experience point. 1608 divided by 10 = 160 experience.)

The father tree was so close that they could smell it; literally. The tree gave off a powerful smell of sap, as the powerful sap that the tree released had been used by local pokemon as a makeshift medical salve for countless years. The sap contained powerful anti biotics, and when applied to a cut prevented infection and stopped bleeding. As such pokemon would attack the branches of the tree however they could to form cuts which they would then gather the sap from. As Alexander and Amphion got closer to the tree, it began to become visible through the densely packed treetops. As they got closer, the noises of life began to increase from all sides. The shuffling of tiny feet, the echoing chirps of birds and even the sounds of pokemon on pokemon combat echoed all around them. Their sightings of pokemon increased as well, with them seeing a caterpie, weedle or Rattata every few feet. They never engaged any of these pokemon simply because it was too dangerous. The numbers were too high and there was a clear and present risk of it turning into a swarm situation. Even with Alexander pitching in with his knife, there was a risk of serious injury or death to either one of them if they were swarmed by dozens or even hundreds of pokemon. As such it was far smarter to avoid the fight altogether. These pokemon were not naturally hostile, after all. They were almost always the prey rather than the predator. A sharp shriek of pain caught the ears of Alexander and Amphion. The surrounding pokemon all began to dart in various directions upon hearing it. Some of the bolder pokemon ran towards the noise, while most fled in the opposite direction. It was coming from the Father Tree, however, so Alexander and Amphion chose to investigate.

The pair ran towards it as fast as they could, and after running for almost a minute they reached a sudden large clearing around the Father Tree. It's massive truck was easily at least 20 metres in diametre, and extended at least a hundred metres into the sky. At the base of the tree, the source of the scream was immediately obvious. A beedrill was flying above two pokemon: A tiny Eevee and a large Espeon. The Espeon was clearly female, as her inner ear was pink, while male Espeon had blue inner ears. The Eevee was cowering, it's back pressed firmly against the Father Tree, while the Espeon was lying on her side, struggling to rise to her feet. The beedrill shot down, sinking the spike on it's thorax into the soft flesh of the Espeon's stomach. She released another shriek, identical to the initial shriek but far louder. The Beedrill's spiked arms followed it's thorax spear, and as they both pierced the Espeon, it released one final shriek of pain before it's body went limp. "Amphion, use Quick attack on the Beedrill!" Alexander ordered as he bent down to withdraw his knife from his boot. Amphion shot at the Beedrill like a bullet, smashing into it as it tried to dislodge itself from the Espeon's corpse. The pair both crashed into the Father Tree, The Beedrill recovering thanks to it's powerful wings while Amphion crashed down next to the Eevee. The Beedrill lunged towards the downed Elekid ready to impale it, but was stopped mid-stride by a blade piercing deep into it's thorax. The Beedrill shot up into the air as the knife that Alexander has thrown dug into it's soft thorax in an attempt to avoid any further blows the strange new attacker might deliver. Alexander exploited this opening to join Amphion and the tiny Eevee, which remained petrified with fear. Alexander wrapped the Eevee in his arms, while Amphion stood at his feet, the pair both watching the Beedrill to see it's next move. Alexander knew Charge Beam wouldn't work here, the Beedrill was clearly experienced judging by how it dealt with the Espeon and it wouldn't make the mistake of being hit by such a slow attack. He had to be hit fast in a way he couldn't dodge. He had to be hit by a thunder shock. It couldn't simply be launched out of nowhere, however. It had to be timed properly so that the Beedrill had no way to dodge it. As such Alexander waited for the one time he knew he could have Amphion land a direct hit; when the Beedrill was launching another direct attack.

"Go into the clearing, Amphion. We'll lure it into attacking you and hit it with a thunder shock. Don't use it until I order you, got it?" Amphion's immediate action proved his lack of fear, as the little ball of confidence ran out from the shelter of the Father Tree and into the open. The Beedrill, weary due to the knife lodged deep in it's Thorax decided to try and deal with the situation from afar. It aimed the spikes it had for hands towards Amphion, needle thin pin like spikes shot from it's hands towards Amphion; it was using Pin Missile. "ROLL BACKWARDS" Alexander roared towards Amphion, who immediately leapt backwards, curling into a ball as he did so to roll backwards across the soft ground. The pins lodged themselves in pairs of two into the soil as Amphion dodged backwards, and as the Beedrill kept firing, Amphion kept rolling backwards. The thick roots of the Father Tree poked out of the ground at places, however, and Amphion soon encountered one due to his retreat leaving him blind of where he was going. Amphion smacked into one of these roots, stopping his roll. Several pins lodged into the soft flesh of his back while he was stationary, causing him to let out a sharp howl of pain. Seeing it's chance, the Beedrill reared back, ready to lunge towards him for a killer blow, just like the kind he had dealt to the Espeon previously. "AMPHION, HE'S ATTACKING. USE THUNDER SHOCK NOW!!" Alexander roared as loud as he could towards his partner. He had to get off his abdomen and onto his back so he could fire a thunder shock towards the rapidly approaching Beedrill. Without hesitation, Amphion rolled over onto his back, causing the spikes to be pushed even deeper into him. He whimpered as he did so, but his mind stayed on focus. A sudden powerful beam of lightning shot from the electrodes on his head straight into the exposed Thorax of the Beedrill. The bolt hit exactly where Alexander's knife had previously lodged itself, exploiting the already open wound to hit the Beedrill for a very potent blow. The impact also knocked Alexander's knife out of the wound, causing it to land tip first into the soft ground. The Beedrill was knocked from the sky by the force of the blow, causing it to land roughly into the dirt. Alexander charged towards the pair, recovering his knife as he did so. He held the Eevee in his left hand and the knife in his right, he charged towards the Beedrill that was rapidly recovering from the blow. He stooped down, placing the Eevee on the ground as he got close to the Beedrill before leaping straight onto the beast's back. It had already began to get airborne, but it was unable to flap it's wings with Alexander pinning them in place. As the Beedrill fell several feet back towards the floor, Alexander dug the knife straight through it's abdomen, piercing it's heart. The pair landed roughly on the floor of the forest, a sharp stinging sensation radiating from Alexander's left leg on impact.

Raising his head, Alexander saw that the Thorax spike had managed to pierce his shin as they had landed, and was dug several feet into the soft tissue. Removing the knife from the chest of the now dead Beedrill, Alexander dug it into his own thigh, using it to dig out the sharp spike from his leg. He let out a sharp wince of pain as he did so, the natural toxin of the Beedrill already causing the area around the wound to become inflamed and incredibly tender. It took him a few moments to remove the barb from his own leg, by which time Amphion had managed to find his feet and approach him. Alexander dropped the kinfe after using it to remove the spike from his leg and leaned back, shutting his eyes as he attempted to deal with the horrible burning sensation that came from his legs. After a few moments, he opened his watering eyes and saw the blood trickling down from the back of the concerned Elekid that stood before him. "Turn around" Alexander grunted at Amphion, and once he turned around he began to pull out the four spikes that had lodged themselves deep within his back. Normally Beedrill left the area and went north after hatching from Kakuna. It made no sense for it to be here, let alone be fighting with an Espeon. Sun stones weren't natural for this area, so it had to have migrated here. There was no way it could have evolved from here, after all, unless it was a trainer's pokemon or unless someone had dropped a sun stone. As he pulled the last spike out of Amphion's back, Alexander tossed it aside before leaning back and shutting his eyes again. His head was foggy from the pain and the natural toxin he had been injected with, and before he knew it, he had passed out.

The feeling of something wet entering his fresh wound snapped Alexander out of his dreamless sleep. His head darted up to face his attacker only to find that it was Amphion. His hand was covered in a thick coating of sap which he was applying to Alexander's now considerably less swollen wound. As he bent down, Alexander saw his own wounds were covered in this too. There was no way an Elekid's tiny arms could reach their own back though. Looking around, Alexander saw a small figure bouncing towards the pair. It was the Eevee from before, it's front paws covered in sap residue. No wonder... the young Eevee was a wild pokemon in this area, it would know all about the sap's properties, and tried to help to pair. The Eevee walked straight up to Alexander and licked his cheek. "eev!" it cried happily. Alexander obviously didn't speak pokemon, but he figured it was trying to thank him. After all, they had saved it from a rather large, vicious Beedrill. It was just a shame they were too late to save it's mother. As he patted the Eevee with his right hand, Alexander removed a pokeball from his left pocket, before tapping the oblivious Eevee on the head with it. The ball absorbed the small pokemon, who made no effort to resist whatsoever. The ball without shaking a single time released the PING of confirmation, letting him know it had successfully captured the pokemon.

After resting in the shade of the tree for a few hours, Alexander's leg had lost all signs of swelling, and was now bandaged with long strips of black cloth that used to be his Singlet. The same black strips wrapped themselves around Amphion, covering his puncture wounds from the spikes. The sun was beginning to set, however, and that meant trouble. After walking as best he could towards a nearby tree, Alexander broke off a branch of forearm thickness and wrapped the final tatters of his singlet around it. He coated the cloth in sap, and after removing some flint from his survival kit, set the stick ablaze. Alexander and Amphion began the slow hobble towards Pewter City. The Father Tree was a good ten kilometres from the tree, and as Alexander was injured the walk would take him at least three hours. Most of the walk was silent and uneventful, as the flames from the torch kept all the nocturnal pokemon as far away from them as possible. Occasionally they would see the eyes of a Hoothoot in the distance or hear the scampering of a pokemon trying to hide from the incoming source of light. After several hours of walking, Alexander leaned his back against a tree, lodging the torch upright in the ground as to avoid it going out or setting anything on fire. He intended to stay there for several minutes to get his breath back, but ended up passing out again with Amphion curled up in his lap.

Alexander awoke suddenly to a face full of darkness. He could hear the crackling of the torch and knew it was NOT dark. He could feel something on his face! His hand instinctively reached up and swung at whatever was obscuring his vision, causing him to knock a small Spinarak off his face. "AMPHION!" he howled towards his companion, who opened his eyes suddenly. The spinarak was clearly asleep when he was hit, as he was disorientated and confused. After realizing that his bed had attacked him he puffed himself up as much as he could, making his hairs stand on end to increase how big he looked. Amphion was having none of this, however, and without moving a muscle he shot it with a Thunder Shock. The bolt hit the pokemon head on, making it release a strange noise that Alexander assumed was a howl. It began to run towards the pair however, and in an attempt to slow it down until Amphion could contain the situation, Alexander tossed a pokeball at it. The ball shook and bounced violently, bouncing across the floor of the forest for several seconds before just.. stopping. He had captured it? Strange. It seemed so full of fight, he hadn't expected it to be captured so quickly. Still, it was good for him, he got a new pokemon. Gathering the torch and the newly captured Spinarak's pokeball, the pair headed off towards Pewter City once again, and after another hour of hobbling through the woods, they reached the town border. The light from the pokemon centre was in clear view, as it sat near the town's southern entrance. Alexander rubbed the flame of his torch out in the dirt before dropping it there, and he and Amphion entered the pokemon centre at last. They gathered Amphion and his new companions up and carried them away to be treated while a nurse and her Blissey carried Alexander into a theatre room himself to clean up the wound on his leg. After laying him down on a table, the Blissey gave him a small egg, which he took a large bite out of. As soon as he swallowed it, however, he blacked out.

Alexander awoke the next morning next to a tray full of pokeballs. Looking at his leg, he found it cleanly bandaged by precision hands. He could stand on it without any pain whatsoever, too. Blissey was a fantastic pokemon, they always managed to clean up even the ugliest of wounds.

(Levels 1-10: 500 words" Two pokemon within this range = 1000 word count requirement.

Word Count: 2513

20 words per experience point due to pokemon being captured. 2513 divided by 20 = 125 experience)