TEAM YELLOW: Pokemon RP: Tales from the Belvair Region

Glancing off the side of the railing, Alicia looked downward towards the deep and endless ocean below her. Floating on top was the majestic S.S. Benjamin, a young seafaring vessel with little experience out on the open blue. Miles ahead of it was a silhouette of a land formation, possibly some sort of island. Why, it was the boat's destination, Lunel City. Racing through Alicia's mind were expectations for this city. She didn't know anything about Lunel City, or the Belvair region at all, for that matter. Would the people be nice? Would it be like her hometown, or a massive city like Slateport or Rustboro? She really didn't know what she was doing.

Blowing in the sea winds was Alicia's cute dress, her choice of apparel for the day. Rather short, the dress reached to about the middle of her thighs, or just under. The dress was mostly black, however the sleeves and collar were white. The sleeves weren't very long, not even reaching her elbow. Her backpack was not currently on her, left in her cabin. Resting in her long, brown hair, just about above her right ear, was a bright, crimson red ribbon. A tiny, brown pouch taken off her backpack was strapped to her side, one that looked like it could hold two or three Pokeballs. However, currently the only thing it contained was her Torkoal, Estevan.

As the ship drifted through the waves, it eventually reached a stopping point. Slowly coming to a stop, she had finally arrived in the Lunel City docks. There was a mad rush to get off the ship, Alicia being bumped around and pulled in the crowd as if it was an ocean current. She couldn't stop the flow of the crowd until she was abruptly pulled out by a tall man in a nice, black suit. "Are you lost, little girl?" He spoke with a firm, clear tone, somewhat startling the small girl. "U-Um, no, I'm not. I-I need to be going now." She tried to quickly dart off, but was unable to escape his firm grip. "Relax, I work here. I'm an immigration officer, if you know what that is. We just have a few questions for why a little girl is on a boat all by herself."

She was interrogated for hours by multiple different men, with questions such as, "Where are you from?" "Where are your parents?" "What Pokemon do you have?" and so on. Eventually she managed to get free from them, leaving the port and getting her first glimpse of the city. Well, not exactly. Alicia was immediately rushed into a crowded street, pushed every way without even being able to control where she was going, she was just pushed by the crowd. She couldn't stop or turn or she'd be run over by people. She felt like she was going to puke from all of the shaking back and forth, but it was probably just a feeling. After being pushed around the city, Alicia managed to see a chance to escape. Pushing and shoving her way out like the rude people that did to her, Alicia managed to break from the crowd, crashing to her knees in the grass. She let out a few deep breaths, obviously exhausted from all of the walking she just had to do.

Could she really do this? Pushing herself to her feet and dusting her knees off, Alicia peered at the worn steel gate in front of her. Most of the gate was hidden due to it being open, however Alicia could see the sharp steel ends pointing downwards in front of her. Behind it was a literal forest of trees, brown and green blocking all she could see. While she was focused on the forest, however, she was unaware of what was happening above her. Suddenly, Alicia's vision went black. For some reason, it felt very. . . comfortable, though? Not that that mattered to her. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Alicia let out a loud shriek of fear, grabbing at whatever was on her face and pulling it off. The Pokemon seemed more stunned than her, as multiple seeds shot out from it's cotton body, pounding her in the cheek. Alicia dropped it and backed up, holding a hand to her sore cheek. "Owwww, that hurt. . . " She muttered to the Cottonee, as it seemed ready to attack again. "What'd I ever do to you?!" She shouted at it, probably to no avail. Wait, this was part of being a trainer, right? This was something she had to do! . . . Right?

Slowly sliding her hand to her side, Alicia pulled a single Pokeball out of her backpack's side pouch. She kind of tossed it at the ground, although the aim left something to be desired, to say the least. The Pokeball opened and in a bright flash of white, released her Pokemon. A large, red tortoise stood in place of the white light, it's long, slender neck reaching up above it's body. On it's back was a massive black shell, with hot, glowing red hexagons situated in a circle around the center. Smoke starting from these hexagons, showing that it was in fact very hot. He stood there for a moment, before exhaling a large puff of smoke from his nostrils, simply saying, "Tor." The Pokeball clumsily bounced back to Alicia, who bounced it in the air a few times having difficulty catching it.

"O-Okay Estevan, it's time for a Pokemon battle!" She shouted to the Torkoal with blatantly false enthusiasm in her voice. The Torkoal glanced back with a face that seemed to say "usrsbro?" but didn't question her orders as he turned back to the Cottonee, releasing a second puff of smoke, this time from it's mouth. "Y-Yeah! Now, uh, how do we do this. . . Oh, right! E-Estevan, use Ember!" She shouted, pointing somewhat dramatically at the Cottonee. That was how she saw her brother do it, right? Should she really do that, though? The thing was really soft and squishy, and it looks like cotton. The fire would really hurt it, wouldn't it. . . ?

Estevan seemed to find this entire thing very silly, but didn't disobey his orders. A third, massive puff of smoke was released from his nostrils, smoke rising even higher from his back as the openings in his back started glowing with an even brighter flame than before. Opening his mouth, a wave of tiny embers roared out of his mouth, quickly rushing towards the Cottonee. As they burned, small ashes fell to the ground between the Torkoal and Cottonee.

Holly rolled around on the ground, her picnic blanket soft on the long grass. She seemed content with herself after trapping a Magikarp under a box with only a carrot. It was equally mysterious how she was able to beat it to death with only a tree branch. Either way, she had enjoyed the meal. Though Magikarp is widely known to have the most gamey flavor of all edible pokemon, Holly was able to enjoy it with the meal accompaniments she packed to cook it with.

After her campfire burnt out, she packed everything back into her bag and rolled up her blanket. Back to town, she thought. It would get dark in a few hours and she didn't want to be stuck outside again for the third day in a row with the wild pokemon. It wasn't too dangerous, sleeping in a tree. But the coldness and the screeching of the pokemon was starting to get to her. It was high time she stayed in a Pokemon Center bunk. There was almost no way they would refuse her. It was hard to get away with things just for being a kid in this city, but the Trainers' Association should protect any trainer in the walls of the center. Would they let her have a card just for having an egg? In a few steps she realized it wouldn't matter.

Through the trees and past the fence, Holly saw one of her favorite pokemon. Someone was battling it. This was her chance!

A rapid thumping came from the woods. Closer, closer. . .

Knowing she had five pokeballs, Holly wasn't risking this opportunity. It wasn't her battle though? She didn't care. The Trainer License was as good as hers. She steeled her knuckles around one pokeball. Focusing her eyes on her target, she slung her arm back. So cute. . .

Stopping on her left foot, she heaved her arm at full force straight ahead. The ball whizzed through the air like a hollow-point bullet. As the Cottonee fled toward the woods, it turned mid-bounce into the trajectory of the ball. There was a loud smack as the stiff capsule ricocheted off the soft face. The ball popped open in the dirt as it spun like a top and an explosive lightning bolt sucked the fluffy creature into the opening. The ball continued to spin on the ground with the monster inside. Holly watched from a distance in awe and suspense. Would it stay inside?