Cherry on the Beach

"Rambling to yourself like that," a voice called from behind Alice, "and I'd say you were crazy. Unfortunately for me, there's no padded white rooms around here. And as of now about, well, seven hundred and eighteen known, give or take the few thousand probably lurking around. They bloody find hundreds of new ones every year or so, Arceus knows why we keep doubting there'll be more."

The source of the voice was a tall black haired teen, leaning against a nearby palm. He was wearing black from head to toe, and if he had not started speaking, he would be easily missed, as he was with Alice's initial sweep of her surroundings. His paler complexion was enough to force him to maintain his position close by in the shelter of the tree's shadows, but his deep green eyes flashed up toward Alice as a crooked smile crossed his face. "And I guess this could be your dream, I am, after all, the embodiment of beauty that exists in it," an aura of cocky confidence radiated off of him as he continued to observe Alice with slight amusement. "Nice Slowpoke, by the way," he said, "wouldn't leave your side while you were passed out there. Now that's what I call commitment."

"Well, according to you, I'm the great Sir Doesn't Exist, and this," he fished a Pokeball from his pocket, expanded it in his hand and tossed it into the air, allowing a Seviper to appear from the surreal red light that the ball emitted, "is McMakebelieve. Pleased to meet you." The Pokemon looked to his trainer before cocking his head to the side and observing Alice and her Slowpoke. Rolling his eyes, he curled into a spring-like ball, flicked his pointed tail and and turned his nose up.

"Pardon the little guy," the trainer said, "he's a cheeky bastard, and isn't easily impressed." Sweeping his hand out in a flourish, he gestured to their surroundings. "This, my friend, is the great Kinnow Island, off the coast of Kanto. Well, it'd be great if it weren't just a hunk of rocky beach, but I like to use my imagination sometimes, like you imagining that a stunning creature such of myself couldn't possibly be real. Don't worry, it happens all the time."

"Now that's a thinker," the trainer replied, and a lighthearted chuckle burst from his mouth at the jab at his age, "I may not be tall, but that's just an insult, my friend. I'm a perfectly legal adult if you must know, and if I'm twelve, then you must be seven. I am, after all, nineteen in all of its glory." He didn't seem to realize that Alice was, in fact, older than he. He was one to talk, for he pegged her younger because of her own height.

"Pretend?" he asked, somewhat fascinated, "first someone taking a snooze in the middle of an island, and now I learn that said someone doesn't even believe in Pokemon. My, what a day. It's far from winter here, and will always be," he said, "and what, pray tell, is standing next to you," he gestured toward the merry Slowpoke staying by Alice's side, "is that? If it's all your imagination, then I couldn't possibly see it, unless I'm a figment of your imagination too. Wouldn't that be just a tragedy to the world, but not to you," he winked with another cocky smile.

"The name's Landon, nothing too special about it. And this," he gestured toward his grumpy Seviper, which in turn averted his eyes and acted as if his trainer hadn't acknowledged him, "Is Sev. I'm not too creative with the whole name thing." He slowly strode toward her, avoiding the sunlight filtering from above as best he could, and reached his hand toward her.

Cocking his head to the side with a lopsided grin, his gaze flashed down toward Alice as he still just inches away. "Do you want me to pinch you?" he asked, "from what I'm aware of, no imaginary figure can touch its creators. Maybe it'll be a shock to us both if you don't feel it," he chuckled, then rolled his eyes, "or maybe you'll pop out of existence when I do, and I woke you up from this spectacular dream. In that case, since it seems I've forgotten my manners, what's your name? It'd be a shame to forget the girl that appeared from nowhere. Or, what region was it again, Eenglend, or something like that."

"Alice, huh," Landon said, trailing off and not finishing his thought out loud. He pulled his hand back toward him and retreated several steps to give Alice some space, but looked up in time to see her bottom lip curl out in a pout as she seemed to become overwhelmed with the world. This made him smile a little, it felt good to have some excitement on such a droll of an island.

"Well," he started, scanning their surroundings, "considering its your first experience as a trainer, and how you don't believe any of this is real anyway, it's still such a shame," he turned and strode away from Alice, toward the coast, looking over his shoulder with a glint of an unknown emotion in his eyes, "let's go find you a wild Pokemon. I'm sure your first battle is going to be thrilling, to say the least."

Constant polishing makes the edge of the blade on its tail extremely sharp. It’s Zangoose’s archrival. The PokeDex said in an electronic voice as it stored the information of Sev into its immense collection of data.

The snake Pokemon didn't seem to thrilled about this, and let out a hiss of annoyance, curling himself into a tighter ball than before and flicking his forked tongue in and out with distaste. His pointed and sharp tail also flicked back and forth as he eyed Alice and Slowpoke reproachfully. Landon simply sighed and rolled his eyes at his companion and scanned the area, searching for a suitable Pokemon for Alice to battle. Taking sight of something in the distance, he whistled to catch the other trainer's attention and pointed toward the silhouette.

To a trained eye, the Pokemon's shape could be made out in the shape of a star, giving no doubt as to what it was. Though somewhat of a distance away, a slight red gleam reflecting the sunlight gave further clues. The Pokemon had no idea that it was spotted, and could be taken by surprise from a challenger such as Alice.

Staryu, Genderless, Level 7

"How about that," Landon suggested, "seems like a Pokemon that could put up a fight, but surely nothing you two couldn't handle," he was confident in the strange girl's abilities, and the thought of watching her first battle seemed to be amusing to him. "Now this is going to be interesting," he observed out loud.

The unsuspecting starfish Pokemon was an easy target for Slowpoke, even slowed and groggy, the Pokemon wasn't braced or aware of the surprise attack. It shifted its body as it took in the effects of the yawn, and only managed to curiously turn toward Slowpoke as the pink Pokemon collided with it. Sent flailing back, Staryu landed with a thump onto its back before flipping up and standing on two spikes, facing Alice's Pokemon.

Knowing the effects of the Yawn would soon take place, the starfish's gem gleamed with energy before a torrent of water was sent hurtling toward Slowpoke, a Water Gun aimed at the slower foe. Staryu was attempting to get one attack in before it was overcome with exhaustion and sleep.

After its successfully launched attack, the drowsiness overcame the star-like Pokemon, and it flopped onto the ground, asleep. Because of this, it was quite an easy target for Slowpoke's rather sluggish but continuous attacks. After the third tackle, the Pokemon was sent skittering back and hit a nearby rock, jutting out from the sand beneath it. With this, the Pokemon finally slowed in its breathing as it fainted. Slowpoke and Alice had won their first battle!

Slowpoke gained 7 exp!

"What a show," Landon said with a wry grin, walking toward Alice with Sev not following too far behind. "Great job, I wouldn't expect anything less from the people kept in my company, I sorta rub off on all of you, y'know. Congrats, anyway."

"I'm sorry," Landon said, actually sounding sincere for once, "I get a little condescending when I'm happy for others. I call it low self esteem," he breathed in then back out, as if trying to get back into his usual character, "it was still a great battle." Reaching into his backpack, he picked out a gleaming yellow object that almost looked like a shard of some weird stone. Tossing it lightly toward Alice, he motioned toward the Staryu. "Mine as well let it wake up early and get out of here, that Revive should do the trick."

The Staryu seemed to hear Alice's words, but didn't react to them. Instead, it bunched into a small ball and pushed up off the ground and dove into the nearby water, quickly disappearing into the darkened waves beneath.

"Actually," Landon replied with a slight grimace, "I was visiting my cousin. Apparently he had needed a favor and none of my other family wanted to oblige, so," he sighed, "I was the only one there. It's taken care of now though," his dour expression turned light once more, "he's the kinda guy everyone just loves to hate, a real problem child. You can't pick your family, but you can pick to ignore them, if only I weren't such a nice person," he chuckled, "I'm about done with Kinnow, though, not sure where I'll head next. What about you, oh so mysterious dream, what do you plan on doing now that you're in the world of Pokemon?"

"Lovely, huh," Landon pondered, "I guess that's one way to say it." His gaze cast downward toward the merry Slowpoke waving its tail slowly back and forth in a show of happiness and affection, "man, I wish Sev would be more like that toward me," he said jokingly, making his Seviper roll its eyes and hiss, tasting the air rapidly with its forked tongue before intertwining with its trainer's leg and squeezing slightly. This made Landon force out a quick and startled cough before pushing all of his weight into the other leg and shaking the one the snake Pokemon was currently wrapping. "You know I hate when you do that, it makes my leg fall asleep," he laughed toward his Pokemon, that released its grip and fell back to the ground below, "he's such a jerk," he said it fondly, glancing down toward his now smiling Pokemon. Of course, a smiling Seviper was still a very creepy and menacing sight.

Listening to Alice's pondering, Landon gave a slight smile and pat her on the back. "There's no rush to decide right now," he said, "it's only your first day here, after all. Well, I do know you'd need to get off this hunk of rock to do any of those, so why don't we do that first? There's a ferry that can go from island to island, and it gets to the docks around this time, if we're lucky, we may just catch it, if that's what you want to do."

The two walking along left a trail of footprints, crystallized sand rolling off the neat prints. Suddenly, a lump sifted a bit. Another twitch. An orange body emerged from beneath the sand with a frown on it's face. A sleek, weasel-like body and an inflatable float characterized the pokemon. It was a Buizel, until recently had been napping under the sand, but the trainer had trodden on it's tail, and it seemed noticeably annoyed at that. Looking around and spotting the trainer, it dropped down on all fours and scampered after it.


Level 11