King of the Beach

The day was young, but aged at the same time as it was high noon at the beach off to the side of Cadencia and the young man by the name of Justin King approached it. He had come in search of a new partner for his team, one that had the potential to a variety of move sets. Usually, water pokemon fit this category with their ability to learn water, ice, normal, and occasionally even electric and grass.

Off to the boy's side, a houndour obediently strode beside him with proud steps. Her head was held high as if she held superiority while her trainer seemed more passive and waiting for something to happen.

"So, what do you think we'll find?" he spoke to Ira, his houndour. His pokemon only opened an eye before closing it once more and continuing on the important task at hand, finding another pokemon to bring into the team.

"Even though I can't understand you you could at least respond," Justin huffed before the duo fell into silence. Ira was being a bit moody lately, causing Justin to wonder if she didn't quite like the idea of getting another pokemon in their team.

A young female sat upon the dusty yellow sands of Caden Coast's beaches, prodding the tiny grains with her bare feet. The shoes she once wore were placed neatly to once side so that she could feel the sand between her toes. Every now and then a wave from the ocean's high tide would just about reach her feet, cleansing them of the sandy layer that covered them before retreating once more in a white foamy mass. The teen cradled an egg of some sort in her lap, keeping it warm despite the crisp sea breeze that could be felt down here on the coast.

A Butterfree could be spotted nearby, the girl's green gaze flitting back to the butterfly Pokémon with a small smile every so often before her eyes returned to the tranquil serenity of the calm sea and sky.
The Butterfree seemed to be intrigued by the odd pieces of seaweed that had been washed up a little lower down the beach and would flutter down to pick one up in her small hands, examining it before putting it back down and moving on. The ever curious Ditrysia however soon realised how far she had strayed from her trainer and promptly returned to her, landing on the girl's head to peer at the egg that was cradled in her lap.

"I think it likes the calm," smiled Chase quietly, glancing up at the Butterfree that had chosen to perch upon her head. She could almost swear that the Pokémon within could hear her when she spoke, or perhaps it was just inadvertently expressing itself through it's natural psychic ability. Either way, Chase supposed she would learn when it hatched, after all this was all the first step in her journey to learn more about the mysteries of psychic types.

"I wonder if it'll hatch any time soon..." she mused to Ditri, the gentle rolling of the waves the only sound other than her own voice and the voices of two Wingull that chose to ride the ocean waves further out to sea.

The walkers moved onward in silence as the results of their search seemed to be lacking. He sighed before taking out another pokeball, releasing a Lillipup onto the beach.

Ira turned to give an un-amused stare at Justin before she was tackled by the ecstatic lillipup. The houndour growled and retreated to its pokeball, her foul mood leaving her in no mood to play around with the pup. Beezlebub yipped and dashed a circle around Justin before dashing a few feet away on top of a rock to look around more.

The pup spotted a strange pattern not far off, it was different from the ocean and the beach. Curiosity got the better of him, and Beezlebub dashed towards the object in the distance that was a butterfree's wing.

"Beez! Come back!" Justin commanded, but his commands fell on deaf ears as the pup was too focused on the object to notice his trainer had said anything at all. The pup kicked up sand as it leaped up into the air, attempting to pin the object with his tongue hanging happily from the side. He would get a better look at it up close! Maybe it was a friend!

Chase was quite content to just stare out into the open expanse that was the sea. She needed some time to relax after travelling from Cysil city and this seemed to be the place to do it. At least, that was, until a certain Lillipup came charging towards her, fueled by his interest in Ditrysia's patterned wings.

Turning just in time to see the pup leap, Ditrysia promptly took off, dodging Beezlebub. Chase however didn't have time to move after spotting him before the Lillipup had already reached her head, bouncing off of it and past her due to a lack of Butterfree to stop his momentum, eventually landing in the wet sand and sea just past the female trainer.
Blinking, Chase quickly put the egg back in it's place in her bag and got to her feet to jog into the water.
"Are you alright?" she asked the Pokémon as she attempted to guide him from the water, well aware that she probably wouldn't be able to understand the pup's answer.

Ditrysia meanwhile fluttered in mid air, scanning the area with her eyes and looking for a source for the Lillipup. After all, it didn't seem like something that would live on the coast. Upon spotting another trainer a short distance away, she let out a call of '"freee!" to notify Chase.

The pup struggled to pluck itself out of the mud, but managed to complete the task. His face was coated in mud, leaving only his pink tongue, nose, and eyes. to be visible and usable. The pup followed the new person's hand, the interesting and new smell intriguing him to want to smell more of it and get to know the scent.

Justin, meanwhile, had caught up to the lillipup and his antics just in time to see Beez fall flat on his face in some mud. The boy huffed in annoyance of the canine's disobedience before calling out to it, "Beezlebub!" he called to it sternly as he continued to walk closer.

The lillipup gave a small yip of acknowledgement and looked at the female and the strange flying pokemon one more time before making his way towards his trainer, still coated in mud as if he were getting some kind of facial treatment. He didn't seem to register that he was in a bit of trouble for disobeying though.

The trainer found that the pup was after some other trainer of some sort, 'Great I hope they wont want to battle...' he groaned inwardly. He needed a new team member, so he needed to focus on finding more pokemon, not finding trainers who's pokemon he couldn't have. The only way he would get a pokemon from a trainer was through trade, and there was no way he was going to trade away Ira or Beez.

Chase couldn't help but chuckle at the carefree little Lillipup as it bounded out from the muddy, wet sand and back to it's trainer, not caring at all that it had just gotten itself covered in the stuff.
Getting back to her feet, Chase hesitantly smiled at the newcomer. At first glance he didn't seem all that bad. He didn't seem to want to be around her for longer than necessary if his subtle expression was anything to go by, but Chase figured she might as well attempt to talk to him rather than just ignoring him.

"Your Lillipup is definitely energetic," she smiled, attempting to strike up conversation with the new face. Ditrysia re-landed on Chase's head now that the rambunctious Pokémon had been reclaimed by it's trainer and -hopefully- wouldn't try to leap at her again.

The coordinator laughed nervously, "Uh, yeah he can be quite the trouble maker," great, they were talking now, the girl was probably going to ask for a battle now that they were talking. He decided that he was now doomed to a pokemon battle since there was no escaping a pokemon battle without valid reasoning without being called a coward. Just like a girl did back in the city named Lily. Last time he tried to avoid a fight he just got into a bigger one.

An idea sprouted in his mind, what if he could keep her talking and keep the business out of the battles? That might work...might as well try it then.

"He can be a bit of a pest sometimes, but my houndour usually keeps him in line. She's good at that kind of thing," Justin spoke casually, mentally crossing his fingers that the girl doesn't say the words "will you battle me" or something along the line of that.

He would have rather got along on his merry way in search of pokemon, but then again he didn't know where any of them actually were which only added onto his predicament of finding a new pokemon partner.

"Ah," she replied with another small smile, "Ditrysia here is pretty calm herself, so I have to say I've never had the pleasure of dealing with a Pokémon like that," she chuckled, always at her most social when talking about Pokémon. After she spoke, Chase wandered back over to where she had left her bag and shoes in the sand. She paused for a moment to check that the egg was still tucked warmly in her bag where she would hopefully nurture it enough for it to hatch before glancing back over to the other trainer.

"So what brings you down to the coast?" she asked him out of genuine curiosity. After all, his thin clothes didn't seem to be all that suitable for these sea breezes, so as far as she could tell he hadn't just come down here for a casual walk.

"I'm looking for a new team member," Justin spoke, "I'm going for being a coordinator," Justin hoped that mentioning he wasn't much of a battler might discourage the trainer's will to battle, "and doing that requires more than two pokemon."

The male trainer looked around in hopes of spotting another pokemon once more, but either these pokemon were practically ninjas or there weren't many around to begin with due to the frequent fishers from early in the day. Although Justin's logic would say that the pokemon would come out at around this time while the fish pokemon weren't biting and the fisherman were off the beach because of that.

Below the trainers, the lillipup had managed to shake off most of the mud, with only a little bit still clinging on. Beez sat down and looked up, his head almost unable to look farther up as he tried to look at the wings of the Butterfree. He gave a bark before running in a circle in attempt to get the butterfree's attention, hoping it would come down and play with him.

Chase blinked before replying, "I haven't chosen a specific path for myself. I've opted to try both gym battles and contests," she commented, "Though I myself only have one Pokémon and an egg, so you're better off than I am," she added with a hesitant chuckle and a smile.

She hadn't even really thought about adding team members if she was completely honest with herself, though it was definitely something that would be essential to following the two pathways she'd placed herself upon. Chase had just been so occupied with looking after the egg and studying Ditrysia's Confusion move that she hadn't really put much thought into when she would start challenging gyms or entering contests either.

The Butterfree meanwhile watched the Lillipup with interest, gently flapping her wings from her position on Chase's head. Though the Lillipup appeared to be friendly, Ditrysia was a little hesitant to play with it due to the rough and tumble nature of the way it seemed to play around. However after a short period of deliberation, she made a short trilling sound before taking off from Chase's head and hovering above Beezlebub, her curiosity getting the better of her. Chase watched her go and kept an eye on her, lest the Lillipup's play get too rough for the Butterfree's more delicate form.

'Oh...good, not a definite trainer. Doesn't seem like she wants to battle me, so I guess I can stop purposefully trying to keep this away from battling...' Justin's mind calmed down a bit as he ignored his energetic pokemon, thinking that the butterfree would be able to handle itself. He listened to the girl and noticed that the girl seemed to keep an eye on the pokemon, and her stuttering and nervous laughs led him to believe that maybe Beez was making her uncomfortable.

"Beez." Justin commanded, calling the pokemon to his side, "By the way, I'm Justin" he added. The lillipup looked over to Justin, but its nose began to glow green as it began to use Odor Sleuth for a strange reason. The pup sniffed about, catching a strange scent. The pup looked into the distance and darted off, following the trail and causing his trainer to call out his name once more and chase after him.

Justin was getting annoyed with chasing after the lillipup, and tried to recall it, but the excitement deafened the lillipup to its trainer once more. The coordinator reached into his bag and pulled out a second pokeball, "Ira, bring Beez back!" He threw out the second pokeball, and luckily the houndour had gotten over her sour mood and was off to chase after the lillipup.

The lillipup continued on until it came close to the source of them smell, spotting a strange fluffy creature sleeping rather close to the tides. He was about to go check it out, before Ira appeared in front of him with a intimidating Leer that stopped him from going anywhere. The lillipup retreated back to his trainer, and Ira looked to the fluffy pokemon by the tides before marching back to her trainer, her head held high once more.

Justin spotted the Minccino, and looked around to see if that other girl had followed him. "What's that doing here?" he mumbled aloud.

"Chase," she replied simply, feeling it polite to return the gesture by revealing her own name. She then motioned to Ditrysia, introducing the Butterfree before pausing for a few milliseconds and adding out of habit; "Pleased to meet you..."
Chase trailed off as she watched the Lillipup's nose glow an odd green colour. Curious, she watched as the pup dubbed 'Beez' by Justin all of a sudden took off, following some invisible marker in what appeared to be a random direction. Surprised, Chase stood for a moment before Ditrysia began to follow the Lillipup and it's master, Chase shrugging to herself and jogging after them, though not before grabbing her shoes and bag so as to not leave the precious egg she carried behind.

Chase couldn't help but smile at the feeling of the sea breeze on her face and through her hair as she ran along the beach after the stranger she had just met; the scarf she wore streamed out behind her like a tiny cape, guided by the breeze. The Butterfree however seemed focused on her goal to catch up to Justin and Beez and so didn't take the time to enjoy the gentle wind. The Lillipup was definitely a curious and carefree young Pokémon, despite how annoyed it appeared to make Justin and his other Pokémon.

As Ditrysia and Chase caught up, both slowed down to more of a jog, Chase thanking her luck that there hadn't been any sharp shells or rocks along that portion of the beach. Having missed the previous incident where Ida stopped Beez from checking out the scent he had caught, Chase wandered over to where Justin stood nearby to the Minccino that was curled up, asleep as the tide came ever closer to her resting place.
"I have no idea," she replied, though she easily identified the Pokémon itself. Her mother's daycare had seen a fair few of these cute little Pokémon during Chase's lifespan.
"I didn't think Minccino would live so close to the sea. I always assumed them to be forest Pokémon."

"Yeah..." Justin agreed, finally retrieving the Lillipup into his pokeball. Ira stood obediently and proud by her trainer's foot, bored and begrudgingly helping her trainer search for another pokemon.

Only when the waves started to come in did the coordinator notice that the waves seemed to be nearing the Minccino, her fur just barely about to be touched by the chilly and unforgiving water. Justin blinked and spoke, "The water over there..." he spoke, his voice trailing off because it was rather obvious what was going to happen if the tide kept rising.

((Brain Dead ;A;))

Chase watched the lapping of the waves. They were truly getting way too close to the sleeping Pokémon for her comfort, but she also did not wish to wake the wild Minccino by trying to move it. It was a wild Pokémon after all, not like the ones from her mother's daycare. It could end up being rather hostile and the last thing she wanted was Ditrysia or this stranger getting hurt as a result.

The Butterfree hovered over the sleeping Minccino, watching it with her red, compound eyes. Chase watched her for a moment before her expression slowly turned into a cheerful smile. She had an idea.
"Ditri, do you think your Confusion could carry it?" she asked the Butterfree. Ditrysia made a short, quiet trill and nodded as if to show her confidence. Chase nodded in return, signalling her to try it out.

Ditrysia's eyes glowed a light blue, the Minccino becoming surrounded in an outline of the same pale blue colour. Gently, Ditri lifted the Minccino from the sand with her psychic power and began to move the wild Pokémon away from the incoming tide.

Justin watched the small and fluffy pokemon be carried over the muddy water and the sand to a spot where the water wouldn't take over it or worse. His hound stood beside him, bored and seemingly relieved that the pokemon wasn't going to be caught by her trainer. The coordinator's attention was attracted as the sound of a strange bark came from over to the side of the situation. A furfrou was barking as loud for some reason.

He thought nothing of it, thinking it wasn't going to affect their current situation, that was until he spotted the Cinccino falling instead of moving. Justin figured that the Furfrou must have startled the Butterfree, and growled in annoyance before sending Ira over to attack the Furfrou, wanting to get it to cease its barking. The houndour nodded and opened her gaping jaws as a column of flames erupted from her mouth and shot towards the noisy furfrou.

Chase and Ditrysia both watched the Minccino carefully as the Butterfree gently carried it over the sand of the beach, it's form continuing to be surrounded with the blue psychic aura. However at the sharp barking sound, Ditrysia abruptly lost her concentration on carrying the grey furred Pokémon, the blue aura disappearing both from around the Minccino and from the Butterfree's eyes as she reflexively turned to see what the source of the bark was.

Chase, despite also being surprised by the Furfrou's bark, had her eyes firmly on the Minccino, having been worried that Ditrysia's unpractised Confusion move may not have worked how or for as long as she'd hoped. Quickly reacting to the falling Pokémon, Chase leaped out to catch the sleeping Minccino before it hit the ground. In doing so, she tripped over a rock hidden beneath a thin layer of sand and just barely caught the Chinchilla Pokémon before it disappeared from her arms in a flash of light.

Confused for a moment, Chase blinked before quickly scrambling to her feet. The sight that greeted her was a simple Pokéball, laying neatly on the sand. When she'd leaped out to catch the Minccino, one of her Pokéballs had fallen from her bag and had tapped it's back before bouncing off and drawing the Pokémon inside. It didn't even shake before it made a short click sound, signalling that the Minccino within had been captured.

The furfrou growled as the cinccino disappeared, and yelped in surprised as a blast of heat scorched just above his head. He ducked and moved to the side and found himself to be confronted by a rather disgruntled Houndour who seemed to glare at him as if he were the plague. It decided to growl back, its own growl having more power as it was used as an actual attack rather than just a normal thing that dogs did. It barked at the houndour again, over and over.

Justin was beginning to grow quite irritated with the barking that wouldn't silence, and had his houndour use another Flamethrower. The hound quickly obeyed, another blast of flames sprouting from her mouth and rushing towards the furfrou. The poodle dodged out of the way, barked again before rushing in and tackling Ira. She gave snarl in pain before spitting some embers at the furfrou in a counter not commanded by her trainer, who was a bit irritated that she didn't use flamethrower instead as it was obviously a superior move.

The furfrou backed away from the houndour after having completed his tackle attack, and kicked some sand forth into the hound's eyes. She gave a yelp before pawing at her eyes in attempt to get rid of the sand, but the poodle tackled into her once more.

Justin, realizing that the sand attack was hindering Ira a bit too much due to being inexperienced in dealing with the attack, so he returned her and sent out the lillipup instead. The furfrou's barking continued all along the way, as if he were enjoying annoying the trainer. The sand attack came once more, but Justin responded with having his lillipup using odor sleuth, which allowed the pup to track down the scent with ease.

The pup tried to hit the furfrou with play rough, but luck seemed to be against them as the barking continued and the furfrou managed to just barely dodge the attack, receiving some but not all damage. It seemed to laugh at Justin, causing the boy to reach into his bag and throw something at the furfrou, "SHUT UP ALREADY!" he shouted, not realizing he had thrown a pokeball.

The furfrou's eyes widened as a pokeball smacked it in the nose and sucked it inside. The ball shook once, twice, thrice, before giving a click. Justin blinked, he had not meant to capture the furfrou, "Oops..."

Chase blinked again, her green eyes staring at the Pokéball that now contained the Minccino she'd been trying to help. Ditrysia's attention had been re-focussed upon her trainer and she looked upon the scene with a slight tilt to the angle of her head in her curiosity.

Deciding not to stare dumbly at the sphere and contemplate what had happened, Chase moved over to collect the Pokéball, wondering if she should let the Minccino out and see what it was like. It was probably still asleep so she could at least alert it to the fact that it had been captured. She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about capturing the grey furred Pokémon under such circumstances.

"Uhm..." she murmured, letting the Minccino out of the Pokéball in a burst of white light. As she'd suspected, she found that it was still fast asleep, apparently a heavy enough sleeper to be completely oblivious to the events currently going on around it.
Ditrysia let out a louder trill than those she would normally make, which was somehow successful in waking the Minccino. However the Pokémon glared at Ditri with her brown eyes from behind her tail where it was curled around her face. Blinking, the Butterfree retreated, opting to never wake said Minccino like that ever again. After her glare had done it's work, the Minccino sat up with a flick of it's tail before using it like a brush to rid her fur of any sand it had collected whilst she'd napped on the beach.

Justin blinked as he looked at the pokeball in the sand, it merely lay there, not moving. Beezlebub gave a gleeful bark and spun in a circle before running off and fetching the ball, bringing it back to his trainer. The pup gave a happy bark that dropped the pokeball at Justin's feet. The coordinator knelt down to pick up the pokeball, rubbing Beez's head as he did so, "Good boy..."

Justin stood, and saw that the other girl seemed to have caught the Minccino by accident, and let it out. The coordinator looked to the pokeball and unleashed the seemingly crazed canine that he had caught. The furfrou emerged from the bright light and blinked, looking around as if confused.

Justin cautiously knelt down to investigate a strange red collar on its neck, it had a tag that merely said Duke. Justin looked to the furfrou, "You're name is Duke huh? I guess you're someone else's pokemon...but why didn't the pokeball reject you?"

The response was merely a growl as the canine snatched the collar and planted it in the sand. It soon gave a huff before returning to its pokeball on its own. Justin blinked in surprise before looking to Chase, "What even happened?"

Chase glanced from the Minccino to Justin as the co-ordinator spoke, still trying to comprehend what had just happened. As her green gaze rested on the Furfrou, she realised that Justin had captured it, presumably also by accident if his reaction was anything to go by.
"I...don't entirely know," she replied, eyes returning to the Minccino who had now finished brushing sand off of herself and had moved over to Chase's feet, as if realising that she had been caught by the young female and investigating her.

Justin looked at the pokeball that held "Duke", he tried to put together what had just happened with that moment with the furfrou. He seemed to have hated the collar, and the pokeball didn't reject him. The failure to reject a caught pokemon could only mean that this furfrou didn't have an owner, but the collar spoke otherwise since he had a name and he certainly couldn't have put it on himself.

He opened his palm to survey the pink banded collar with a golden heart. The words of the name were written in fancy lettering as if the person who owned it favored elegance.

"Well, it seems i've accidentally caught an abandoned Furfrou," he held the collar from one end of the now broken strap from the furfrou biting it. It had to be the only reason, the previous owner must have released or abandoned the furfrou, and neglected to remove the collar. The furfrou must have been traveling for a while due to how dirty it was, and it must have not helped to have a collar. Trainers or others would look at him and assume his owner would be nearby and leave him be, when it seemed he did not quite know how to take care of his fluffy coat on his own.

The Minccino seemed to watch Chase for a moment before a small, mischievous smile appeared on the Pokémon's face. Mere moments later, it made a quick leap upwards, towards Chase, the young trainer having to catch the Minccino lest the Pokémon just collide with her chest and fall back onto the sand. Once in Chase's arms however, the Minccino curled up, yawning for a moment before covering her face with her tail and closing her eyes. In another short moment her breathing had levelled out and Chase could tell that her new Minccino was sleeping.

Blinking, she couldn't help but smile at the cute little creature. It seemed to have already accepted her as it's trainer, even though Chase still had yet to fully comprehend it herself.
Sitting down on the sand, Chase couldn't help but chuckle. She hadn't even introduced herself to the Minccino and already it seemed comfortable to just sleep in her arms. With a small smile, she figured she'd keep it around, even if Minccino wouldn't help her further her study of psychic types.

Justin blinked as he seemed to be ignored while the other girl was preoccupied with the Minccino. He stuffed the collar into his bag with a bit of annoyance of being ignored, which was more of a running thing of his rather than jealousy. He stuffed the pokeball with the furfrou into the same pocket as Ira, separated from the spare pokeballs.

He wondered if he should get going and head to the city that stood at the center of the region, Solumina. It seemed as if the girl weren't interested in speaking with him anyways, and he didn't even want to speak with her to begin with, but that was before he knew whether or not she was a trainer. He kind of wanted to stay, not favoring being without someone, but it wasn't like his friend from the hospital back in the other region was around to travel with him.

Instead he merely sat down in the sand to check on Beezlebub, not speaking to the other trainer until she spoke to him since it seemed like to Justin that she wasn't interested in conversation. The lillipup gave a bark as Justin began to check on the lillipup, helping Beez to get some sand out of his eyes from Duke's sand attack.