The Path Foreward..... Wait, There Are Two?!?

"Well guys, are we ready to get on with the adventure?" Tori said excitedly as she began to walk away from Luminous Town, pausing so she could spin around and wait for the other members of the small trio to catch up.

"You bet! I can't wait to find all of the strongest Rock, Ground, and steel type Pokemon!" John said, "What are your guys' goals?"

"Of course I'm ready!" Jack responded to Tori. He turned to John and said"Well, I don't really have any goals yet. I just want to get out and see the world!" he said, catching up to the group.

"Well, I'm striving to either become a member of the Elite 4 or a Fronteir Brain!" Tori explained, the thought of her future making her egar to get on the road. "I can't wait to see what kind of pokemon I'll meet on this journey! I've heard that there are so many different pokemon native to this region!" she exclaimed. Aki sat silently on her shoulder.

"The only pokemon that I care about are Rock, Ground, and Steel type pokemon." John said, "Otherwise they really don't matter to me, right Crusher?" John said looking down at Crusher who he was still carrying. "Roggentola.(You bet John)" he said happily.

"So, you're going to ignore all other pokemon?" Jack asked John, curiously. Pika tugged at Jack's leg, signalling that he wanted to climb up on him. "Ok, sure Pika." he said to his partner, and picked him up and put him on his shoulder.

"Wow, that's dedication if I ever saw it!" Tori smiled. She was about to speak again whe Aki suddenly dashed off of her shoulder and stopped in front of some tall grass. "Med! Ti-tite! (Master, over there.)" she motioned eagerly twoards a shadow that was now moving around a little. "What in the world?" Tori muttered as she wandered past Aki twoards the odd shadow. As she approached,the shadow revealed itself to be a wild Misdreavus, which nervously backed away from her. "Woah! That's a Misdrevius! They're really rare around here!" Tori houted a little, startled by the apperance of the little pokemon. Aki quickly jumped in front of her trainer protectively. Tori thought for a moment, then pulled out a pokeball. "I think I'm gonna catch and train that Misdreavus!" Tori exclamed excitedly. "Alright, since Bide won't be effective, Aki use Bullet Punch!" Tori shouted. Aki flew into action on-command, letting loose a furious barrage of tough-as-steel punches. The Misdreavus dodged most of the attack but took some damage, then opened its mouth and let out a screech that was its Growl attack. Aki staggered backward from the high-pitched noise, but stubbornly persisted with it's attack. The Misdreavus pulled away from Aki's furious Bullet Punch and let loose a Psywave, but as powerful as it turned out to be it wasn't very effective on Aki. The insuing battle consisted of the two pokemon blasting each other with their attacks. "Akira, one more time!" Tori finally called near the end of the battle, tension clear in her eyes. She was waiting for the right moment to throw the pokeball. Aki let loose one last furious Bullet Punch, sending the Misdreavus flying backwards, defenseless and weakened. "Alright, let's see if this works!" Tori shouted as she hurled the pokeball twoards the Misdreavus, and with a flash of red light the pokemon disappered into the ball. Now all Tori had tto do was wait.
One shake.
Tori bit her lip.
Two shakes.
Tori began to lean forward, her heart pounding against her ribs.
Three shakes.
Tori's lip was close to bleeding as the anticipation tore at her.
Click.
Tori was so releaved she almost fell over. Aki, tired and weak, rushed over for fear of her trainers health. But Tori jumped right back up, catching Aki in a death-grip. "We did it!" she squealed excitedly. "We really did it!" "Medi..... tite...... (I'm really happy for you, but please don't kill me.... ow...)" Aki choked. "Oops, sorry! Here, you need to rest." Tori said with concern as she set Aki down on the ground. Tori then walked over and picked the pokeball containing her new pokemon off the ground. "I already have a name for you, I think!" she said happily. "From now on, I'll call you Eve!" she continiued in a sing-song voice. She sighed, tired from all the commotion, but still ready to travel. She pulled out a potion to heal Aki with.

John watched the battle with some interest, even though he wasn't interested in Ghost Pokemon he wanted to watch a battle. He slightly nudged Crusher, "Watch closely, we will be doing this soon too," he said. Once the battle came to a close he smiled, "Nice job, looks like you are the first out of us three to catch their first pokemon." he said, "Now come on, let's keep going so that we can catch even more." He started to walk ahead of the group again, Crusher was waddling just behind him.

Jack and Pika watched the battle with awe, knowing that they would be doing that sometime soon. "Hey, you caught it!" Jack said to Tori. Pika nodded his head in agreement. "Pika! Pi pika chu.(Great! A new pokemon in the group.)" he said energetically.

"Thanks guys! I owe it all to Aki!" Tori grinned, glowing with happiness. "Alright, let's meet our new team member!" Tori beamed, pulling out Eve's pokeball. "Let's go, Eve! Meet the rest of the team!" Tori shouted, and in a burst of red light the Misdreavus emerged from it. She looked around, a tad confused. "Mis-mis dreavus? (um, what happened?)" she said in a confused tone. "Hi! I'm Tori, and this is my partner Aki! We're going on adventure with my two friends over there! Wanna come?" Tori asked. "Mis! Mis mis Drea! (I've always wondered what it would be like to travel!)" Eve responded.

OoC: FYI u guys know I kept walking after the battle right?

IC: "Hey guys!" John shouted from just ahead, "Sorry to interput the welcome party, but we have a problem here!"

Jack looked up to see what John was yelling about. "What is it?" he asked, and ran to catch up to him. Pika also ran with Jack, wanting to know what was going on.

"Coming!" Tori shouted, Aki and Eve following close at her heels.

John stood in the middle of the path and looked very perplexed, like was trying to make a decision. Crusher too, looked very perplexed, mainly because John looked perplexed and was trying to copy his face. "Which road are we supposed to take?" John asked, looking at the fork in the road in front of them.

"Uhhh..." Jack said, thinking about it. "You know, I don't really know. We should look at our maps though." he continued, opening up hid backpack to look for his map. Pika walked slightly ahead to look at each path, and twitched his ears in confusion.

"Already got it!" Tori called in a sing-song voice. "Both these roads lead to the same place, but one seems to be rougher, which would be good for training." she announced as she looked over the map. Eve and Aki looked over her shoulder. "So, what path do you guys want to take?" she asked.

As soon as Tori said that the roads go to the same place John started marching off towards the road to the left, "When in doubt always go left!" he shouted pumping his fist into the air. "Roggenrola!(Go left!)" Crusher said following his master.

OoC: I love how he doesn't even think about his decision, before we say which one this is one of us should read the other threads.

"Hey wait for us!" Jack yelled, and ran off towards JOhn. He looked back at Tori and said "Well, let's go!" and turned back around and kept going. Pika ran on all fours to catch up to the others.

"Woah! Hey, wait up!" Tori called as she rushed to rejoin them. So, according to the map this is the rougher of the two paths." she commented. "We should be able to get some good training in as we make our way to the city." she grinned. Axi gave a sharp nod, retaining a serious face.

"So how long till we get to the caves?" John asked, "I want to get some pokemon."

"Well John, it's not necessarily about the destination, it's more about the journey." Jack said, as a way of saying he didn't know how much longer. "I mean, why not enjoy the sights? See some other types of pokemon?" he added, still walking. Pika gave what would sound like a sigh, following along with Jack and listening to him talk.

"Well, in case you were interested anyway Stratos cave is just ahead past route 232." Tori spoke. Eve, who waas still out of her pokeball, floated alongside Tori and Aki rested on her shoulder. Tori was silent for a little while, the spoke up again. "I was just thinking about what Jack said, and it made me think of something. The road is long, the challenges are tough, and the danger is very real, but it all comes down to what you make of yourself. If you want the journey to be worth something, be the best that you can possibly be, whatever it is you want to be. Or are." she mused. It was one of those odd moments where Tori said something really deep and serious. It would occasionally happen once or twice, you just get used to it.

"Well thats true and all," John said marching along, "But what is the point in traveling if you don't have a destination in mind? I mean, even people who just travel for no reason always want something out of it. Like the romance-battle novel, Journey, Pray, Battle."((Go me for a bad book re-title.)) He looked around into the woods around them, "Hey who wants to have a battle?" he asked no one in particular.

"Eh, maybe later." Jack said. He knew that a Pikachu wouldn't do very well against a rock type, so he didn't want to battle untill he got another pokemon. Pika nodded his head in approval of Jack's decision.

"Sounds like good practice for what's ahead of us!" Tori said excitedly. "I'll battle you, John!" she said enthusiastically.

Ooc: I picked my personal battle theme (A.K.A. Tori's theme XD). So when you battle her, this is the music that plays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SeeFq1ktuM
Sorry I couldn't find a longer version XD