Soda and Cubone entered the shady Skahadan Forest. Soda decided that it was the best place to start: it was teeming with many and varied wild Pokemon. He’d decided to catch as many as he could, raise them to the highest levels he could, then go compete for badges. Unlike most trainers, who caught and raised and scored badges all at once. His method, he reasoned, had much better odds. They they’d barely walked ten paces when a wild Pidgy swooped down and landed in front of them. "Sweet!" Soda grinned. "It’s a Pidgy!" "Cubone bone bone." Cubone said edgily. He balked a little. "What’s the matter, Cubone?" Soda asked. "Cubone cu cu cubone bone cubone." Cubone explained in a perfectly logical talking-to-a-moron tone. "Cubone cu cu cubone bone cubone." "You don’t wanna fight it?" Soda wondered. Cubone nodded. The Pidgy was ignoring them, pecking the ground, lazily hopping about. "Why not?" Soda asked. Cubone let out an exasperated sigh and then flapped its arms up and down, ran in circles, then dove at the ground, smashing the dirt headfirst. "Flying?" Soda ventured. Cubone nodded vigerously. "What about it?" Cubone pounded on the ground. "Ground?" Another round of vigerous nods. "Flying and ground..." Cubone was nodding superfast now. Soda flipped open Pokedex and called up the Pokemon Battle Chart. "Oh." he said at last. "You don’t wanna fight it because flying Pokemon are strong against ground Pokemon." Cubone nodded again. "Can you try?" Soda asked hopefully. "Just knock it out, maybe?" Cubone sighed in frustration and hurled his bone club. The spinning projectile smashed into Pidgy and sent it skittering awkwardly across the sand, clawing and flapping. "Pokeball, go!" Soda shouted, flinging a Pokeball at the Pidgy. Bonk! It hit Pidgy and sucked him inside. The ball wriggled and rolled, and then... Ding! "Yes!" Soda laughed. "We got Pidgy!" Cubone caught his bone club on the rebound and laughed along with Soda. "Let’s see if it’ll listen to us." Soda offered. Cubone shrugged. Soda flung Pidgy’s Pokeball. It snapped open, and out flew the Pidgy. "Pidgy." the little bird trilled, cocking its head at Soda. "Pidgy." "Hey Pidgy, I’m Soda!" Soda said cheerfully. "Here," he offered his forearm, "come on." The Pidgy warily hopped up and clung to Soda’s forearm. The bird to busily preen its feathers. "We got a new friend, Cubone!" Soda said to the orange lizard. "Cubone." Cubone snarled jealously. The lizard leaped at Pidgy. Smack! He Bone Clubbed the startled bird into the dirt. Cubone immedietly started a shuffling victory dance around his the KOed Pidgy. "Cubone! Bad!" Soda scolded. Cubone looked guilty and hung his head in shame. "Pidge! Pidgy!" Pidgy scowled, hopping into the air and taking off. It flapped furiously, kicking up a gust of wind at Cubone. The skullhelmeted lizard was lifted into the air and smashed into a tree. "Stop fighting!" Soda yelled sternly. Pidgy landed again. Cubone frowned but obeyed. "Cubone, Pidgy is our new friend." Soda said. "Be nice to him." Cubone scowled rebeliously, but didn’t attack Pidgy again. "Here, Pidgy, have a biscuit." Soda said, tossing the bird a biscuit. The Pidgy smacked the biscuit with its wing, hopped around it a little to make sure it was dead, then started pecking greedily. Cubone made a complaining noise. "Are you hungry?" Soda asked. Cubone nodded. Soda fished around in his duffel bag for the box of Pokemon food he’d brought. "Let’s see...clothes, Pokeballs, Superpotion, no...fishing rod, no...pickles...pickles? Argh, who packed pickles?" Cubone brightened up. "Cubone!" it chirped. "You want a pickle?" Soda asked, holding up a jar of the green veggies. "Cubone!" Cubone nodded eagerly. "Okay, sure." Soda tossed Cubone a pickle. The lizard immdietly bolted it down and belched a lot louder than he seemed capable. Once Pidgy finished his biscuit, he hopped obediantly into his Pokeball. Soda put Pidgy’s Pokeball into a special carrier case that was latched to his belt. "Nifty." he said. "Cubone." Cubone announced. The rest of the day was spent wandering the forest and searching for Pokemon. The found a wild Rattata skulking in the bushes, and Cubone launched himself at it and immedietly started trashing it, allowing Soda to capture it. Cubone demanded a pickle as a reward, which Soda gave. The next Pokemon they found was a Spearow. Soda decided not to use Cubone, instead using Pidgy. There was a breif scrap, but Spearow won and flew off, cawing victoriously. Soda congradulated Pidgy for a job well done anyway. It was the next Pokemon that was the real prize. It was dusk now, the skies were afire with sunset colors and early stars, and Soda had just begun to set up camp for the night. And then it came wandering into his camp. "Pikachu!" the little mouse Pokemon said in a decievingly cute tone. "Pipipipi-pikachu." "Wow!" Soda said in awe, the tent he was pitching momentarily forgotten. "It’s a Pikachu!" Pikachu was possibly the most well-known Pokemon of all. It was the very first Pokemon of the legendary Pokemon Leauge leader, Ash Ketchum. "Cubone, can you battle it?" "Cu cubone." Cubone said coolly, gripping his bone club tightly and edging towards the Pikachu. The Pikachu seemed to ignore both Soda and Cubone. It was more interested in Soda’s duffel bag. The electric mouse started rifling through the items, sniffing them, inspecting them, banging them on a nearby rock and muttering "Pipipipi" over and over to itself. "Cubone, while it’s distracted, Bone Club!" Soda called. "CUBONE!" Cubone howled, swinging and knocking Pikachu one between its floppy llama ears. The Pikachu spun around in a combat crouch, growling. The electric mouses’ red cheeks immedietly crackled with high voltage and... "Pika-CHUUUUUUU!" Searing lightning bolts split the night air, lighting up the dark forest in an eerie, unnatural way. Cubone took the full brunt of the Pikachu’s furious attack, dissapearing in a blast of sparks. "Cubone!" Soda cried fearfully. The sparks died down. Cubone emerged, a little singed, but otherwise unscathed. "Ground Pokemon have an advantage over electric." Soda’s Pokedex offered. "The Pikachu’s electric attack was blunted by Cubone’s ground-like properties." "Shabang." Soda said, impressed. "We got the advantage now. Cubone, Leer!" The Leer knocked Pikachu loopy. "Cubone, Growl!" Pikachu clapped both of its paws over its ears and screamed. "Cubone, Bonemerang!" "Cu-BONE!" Cubone flung his bone club at the Pikachu, who recovered from his former dizziness and bolted, the bone club sailing harmlessly past. More throws resulted in the same thing. Pikachu was too agile to hit, it leaped all over the place, bouncing off the rocks, trees, ground, streaking like a renegade yellow pinball, effortlessly evading the frustrated Cubone’s missile. Finally, the Pikachu leaped in and Growled, making Cubone drop his bone club and sink to his knees. The lizard clawed at its bone helmet and whimpered. "Rattata, go get ‘im!" Soda yelled, flinging Rattata’s Pokeball. Rattata sprang out. "Rrrrrattata!" Rattata hissed and arched its back at the impassive Pikachu. "Rattata, Quick Attack!" Soda yelled. Rattata smashed into Pikachu and knocked it on its back. The Pikachu flipped backwards and fired a Thunderbolt that totally charred Rattata. Patches of its fur were still on fire. "Ergh..." Soda said in frustration as Rattata limped back into its Pokeball. He didn’t want to risk using Pidgy...flying vs. electric? What kind of a matchup was that? Cubone shook his head vigerously and got back to its feet. With a wild "Cu-BONE!" he charged in and started Bone Clubbing and Thrashing Pikachu from pillar to post. "Way to go, Cubone!" Soda called out encouragement to his furiously-fighting Pokemon. "Cu-bone, cu-bone!" Cubone muttered each time his club bludgeoned Pikachu. Pikachu, dazed and bruised, fell facefirst into the dirt. A sawtoothed spark popped from its tail as it twitched feebly. "Pokeball, go!" Soda cried, flinging an empty Pokeball, Ash Ketchum style. Pikachu was sucked in. Caught! "Cubone!" Cubone said, spinning his bone club deftly. "Bone cubone." Soda rewarded the lizard with a pickle, which it chomped down in two bites. "Excellant, a Pikachu!" Soda laughed, yawning. "But we better get some sleep, Cubone, it’s late." Cubone bounded up onto a rock and was sawing logs in a tick. Soda himself finished erecting the tent and slid into a sleeping bag. The young weasel couldn’t wipe the grin from his face. Three new Pokemon, in only one day! Things were really looking up.
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