Pokedex One-Shots (PG)

[Deadly.Braviary]

Pelipper is spelled with only one 'L'. Any ways, good going and happy New Year, Ysavvryl!

[shac]

Nice Pelipper entry. Liked the mention of TA.

Whoa! You wrote a lot of stories..............!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

I thought you have completed all the starters, but it's only 19/36.

You have done 4 shinies. You wrote 3. A typo, or did you count magikarp and gyra as one since it was the same mon?

Happy New Year!

[Ysavvryl]

The shiny count was a typo. I'll fix that. And Pelipper. Hehe, silly typos.

So, the request here was for Ledian and something. I'm not gonna tell you what that something is. Make a guess! I don't think it's too hard, though. And if you like this entry, check out its inspiration, Power by LampShade.

In Process: Lickitung/Lickiliky
On Deck: Unown, Mawile, Kricketot/Budew
Reserve: ???/??? (#246-7)


LEDIAN AND ???


“He’s not going to live.”

The horrifying proclamation made Cedric’s head spin. Wasn’t going to live? That couldn’t be real. There was no way it was real. But the doctor wasn’t lying and there wasn’t anything but his own denial that made it an untruth. On the countertop, his Ledian was still, breathing rather noisily. His eyes were cloudy; he was old for his kind. Still, this shouldn’t be the end.

The doctor spoke of it as a matter of fact. “The illness has spread to many of his internal organs, including the lungs. If you leave him with us, we can order a replacement immediately and have it ready by tomorrow.”

“But it won’t be him,” Cedric said, looking down and holding his Ledian’s hand.

“It will be him, an exact genetic copy,” the doctor corrected. “Or you could choose another kind of Pokemon if you don’t want a Ledian again. You don’t have another companion Pokemon, right? So you can ask for nearly any Pokemon and it should be accepted. What do you have in mind?”

It still wouldn’t be his Ledian, Cedric thought. And he didn’t want any other Pokemon. “I’ll think about it,” he said quietly, then picked up the Bug. “I’ll take care of Red.”

“All right. Make sure to put in your request before the weekend, or you’ll have to wait a few days longer.”

“Right,” Cedric mumbled, and left the Pokecenter.

If he was anyone else, Cedric knew, he would have left Red with the doctor and taken a different Pokemon instead. Sickness was a sign of weakness, and weakness was undesirable. But from his grandmother, he knew stories of before the city, stories from centuries ago. Those stories told of green landscapes with clear skies; the stories told of countless free and happy Pokemon. In this city of concrete and steel, the Pokemon were produced and never seen without a human owner.

Some of the other pedestrians gave him disapproving looks or walked out of their way to avoid him. He could have sent Red back into his Pokeball. But he didn’t want his Ledian to be alone. Cedric would get back to his grandmother’s house and put Red in a soft bed and stay with him. After that… he didn’t know.

But as he approached the house, things turned out bad. There was a group of enforcers blocking off the yard. Various people stood watching, wondering what was happening. As Cedric got to the crowd, a lead enforcer came out of the house. The only way one could tell he was a lead was because his uniform had yellow fringes. Otherwise, the enforcers all looked alike: black shoes, black pants, black jacket (with personal armor), black sunglasses, and black caps.

The lead enforcer held his hand up to quiet the crowd. “Citizens, we have a grave announcement. The resident or residents of this house have been put under arrest for spreading misinformation and corrupting the youth. He, she, or they have been telling stories of a time and place other than the city. The city always has been and always will be. Such lies will not be tolerated. We have the situation under control. Please return to your regular lives.” Then he moved back in, talking in a low voice to other enforcers.

“I didn’t know there was a corrupter in our neighborhood,” a woman said, horrified.

“I’m glad I didn’t know them,” a man said, even though he had often come over to chat with Cedric’s grandfather about vehicles.

“Huu nah?” Red mumbled softly into Cedric’s ear. He sounded confused and saddened.

He patted the Ledian gently and turned around. “We can’t fight the enforcers,” he said quietly. “But I know what we can do. We’re going to find the green lands.”

The green lands were something his grandparents had often talked about. According to the officials, the city was the only habitable place on Earth. There was nothing beyond its borders. However, his family and others believed that there were green lands, places of paradise that were being kept away from everyone. It was said that millions of Pokemon still lived free in the green lands. Cedric had always wanted to see them. Now with his grandparents under arrest, shortly to never be seen again… there was no reason for him to stick around.

After a quick stop at his home to pack a few things, Cedric took Red and set out to leave the city.

-+-

Two lead enforcers walked along a suspended metal walkway. There was open air for hundreds of feet below them. “There is one of the corruptors that we haven’t tracked down yet. Trackers indicate that he is heading west.”

“They were sentenced to execution, right?”

“Right.”

The other lead enforcer nodded, then stopped by a red glass box. She put her hand on the glass and looked into a retina scanner, double confirming her identity. With the box unlocked, she opened it up and took a transmitter. “Hunter J, activate,” she stated into the transmitter.

On a tower near the suspended walkway, a series of small orange lights appeared. There was a creak of metal being set into motion. A low grumble came from the tower.

The male enforcer handed his peer a digital clipboard, displaying data on the target. “You are to seek out and eliminate Citizen C57-825-223. He is heading towards the old city, so encounter him as soon as possible.”

After a hiss of steam, Hunter J set off.

-+-

Cedric lived in the center of the city. The elite members of society lived in the east of the city, while the poor lived in the west. As he traveled on the subway, the stations grew progressively more dilapidated and dirty as the train went west. However, there would be fewer enforcers in the west.

At the last station, he got off and went up. The houses and buildings out here were so dilapidated and drafty that no one should be living or working in them. But they were being used. Cedric didn’t intend on staying here, though. The smell of industrial smoke was strongest here, and his Ledian coughed every few minutes from it.

But there came a point where everything was so bad that no one lived there anymore. Collapsed ruins were everywhere. The concrete streets were crackled badly, in some places nothing but rubble. “I hadn’t expected things to be this bad,” Cedric said to Red. “I’ve noticed they steadily move the city east, but they’re always so clean. I thought they would clean up everywhere.”

Red warbled, flicking his feeler along Cedric’s neck. He lifted his head a little and looked around. With a twitch of his wings, the young man caught sight of the single pair of black stars on the Ledian’s shell.

“Hang in there,” Cedric said. “Maybe we’ll both find the green lands.”

Behind them, there came a terrible scratchy roar. When he turned back, there was a great steel monstrosity crashing through the ruined streets after him. It had the appearance of an impossibly enormous centipede turned into a tank. The enforcers already knew that he had run away, so they had sent a Hunter after him.

Cedric ran, even though a part of his mind said it was impossible to escape a Hunter once it found you. It began firing at him with at least a dozen guns. Some people said that they were robots that had once been built for war. Others said that they powered by Pokemon stronger than any other. The government would not release information on the Hunters, other than that they were used only for the worst of fugitives.

But how could he be one of the worst fugitives? It didn’t make sense. The stories his grandparents told couldn’t be that dangerous. And not letting them take away his Ledian wasn’t that bad either.

Red cried out in fright and worry, finishing up in a raspy gasp. A silver glow formed around his fists. “Red, you’re not strong enough to fight,” Cedric said. But then the Ledian released Silver Wind anyhow.

There was a pained screech from the Hunter, right before it crashed onto the road. Cedric managed to trip himself up in the torn up road. Trying to protect Red, he turned to the side and hit the street rather hard. He sat up and looked over his Pokemon. “Are you all right?”

“Hooo,” Red said softly, trembling in his arms.

This wasn’t good for the Pokemon while he was sick. Cedric got up, looking warily at the Hunter. From the showers of sparks flying off the machine, the attack apparently had damaged some critical power lines. Were they really going to get away from the Hunter?

Then there was a groan of metal. The Hunter lifted itself back up again. However, it did not roar, nor did it start firing again. It looked at him, doing nothing. Cedric started to back up, but nearly slipped on loose rubble. Should he just keep running? That seemed best. And yet, he felt something holding him in place, a power that he couldn’t see.

As he couldn’t react, the Hunter came up to him, picked him up with its claw arms, then placed him in a caged seat that was partly sunk into its armor. It then put a locked bar over his lap. With him secured, the Hunter went west.

Cedric was mystified. If it had been sent to retrieve him, why was it continuing out of the city? But so long as it was doing that, he checked on Red. The Ledian seemed oddly relaxed. Maybe he didn’t even realize what was going on. His ragged breaths got softer and then stopped altogether.

That attack had probably spent up the last energy that Red had. And it had only held off the Hunter for a moment, being unsuccessful in keeping Cedric free. He had been with Cedric too long to do nothing, though.

When Cedric had turned ten, he had been assigned a Ledyba as his first Pokemon companion. The government officials were always good about matching people with Pokemon that would suit them and made sure that everybody had at least one. Still, Cedric adored Red and always had him out by his side. They had battled enough for Red to evolve into a Ledian, but past that, they were simply the best of friends, as close as family.

He remembered how Red liked to watch the night sky, as brown and ugly as it was. He would warble happily under the full moon and was ecstatic any time a strong star pushed its light into being seen. During the day, he liked to help in the greenhouse that Cedric worked in, trimming trees and smelling flowers. The Ledian had all friends, no enemies. So why did he have to be taken away after such a short life?

Cedric held the body close and cried.

-+-

At the Office of Domestic Security, one of the officials spoke with a high ranking enforcer. “Why are the remote planes being deployed?”

“Sir, we’ve lost control over Hunter J,” the enforcer said. “It was sent to terminate a corrupting citizen and its mental monitors were damaged.”

“How many Pokemon does the fugitive have?”

“Just one, sir. A terminally ill one at that.”

“Then how did we lose control over Hunter J?”

The enforcer lowered his head. “We don’t know, sir. But the pilots of the remotes are well trained and Hunter J is damaged. We will retrieve it before it gets too far away.”

“You’d better. We haven’t had one of them escape in over four centuries.”

-+-

The strange Hunter had struggled to get past some of the older ruins, where rubble had been spread and was prone to slipping under its great weight. But when Cedric had the presence of mind to look around, he saw trees growing among the ruins. Trees… he had only seen them in pictures and his imagination. “Did we reach the green lands?” he asked. It didn’t seem that great of an accomplishment, though. Not with Red gone before the loyal Bug could see the trees.

Then there was a buzzing overhead. Cedric looked back to see eight remote planes flying their way. According to official records, they had been left over from past wars as well and were not supposed to be in use. But this Hunter was still going west. Maybe Red’s Silver Wind attack had made it malfunction and they had been sent to eliminate both him and the Hunter.

From below him, the Hunter made a hiss of steam. It paused in its travels. Then with a series of clanks, the robot released ten body segments that were behind where Cedric was sitting. Before he could decide why it would do that, the last body segment lifted into the air. Then, as if an invisible giant had a hold of it, the hunk of metal was lobbed into the sky. It hit one of the remote planes and knocked it out of the sky.

And then the Hunter proceeded to throw the rest of its body segments at the remote planes. It hit most of its targets, but the last three seemed to wise up to the plan. They began turning erratically, making them harder to hit. Despite that, the Hunter managed to knock down two more. The third finally got in range and began shooting.

Cedric felt an impulse, almost an instruction, to jump off the Hunter, but wait by the head segment for a moment. The lap bar released, along with that segment’s connection to the head. After sending Red’s body into the Pokeball for safe keeping, he got off of the Hunter’s back. His mind wanted him to run away right then and there, but that impulse to stay for a moment remained. So he waited, hoping that he wouldn’t get hit by the remote plane.

As the one body segment got chucked at the remote plane, the head segment changed. The left part of its face, including the eye, split up and shifted up or down. Within the depths of the ancient machine, there lay a strange Pokemon. It seemed like an infant lying in there, clothed in a white gown with two wide yellow trails hanging off it. However, it also had an oversized yellow hat with three floppy peaks. Several strips of blue paper hung off the tips of the hat. But it was a Pokemon, so that ‘hat’ was part of its body. Its eyes were closed, but its chest was moving.

Cedric pulled the Pokemon out of the Hunter machine. After he took a few steps back, the Pokemon’s tails and hat fluttered under a strange power. The head segment then lifted off the ground and was thrown at the final remote plane. This found its mark and their last pursuer was destroyed.

Although it was quiet now, Cedric wasn’t sure what to do. His Pokemon was dead and the one he was holding didn’t seem responsive. However, close examination showed that it was merely asleep. But then how had it been able to drive the Hunter machine? And throw it piece by piece without any physical contact? Even the best of Psychic Pokemon that he had seen wouldn’t have been able to manage that feat even when awake.

Then he had that impulse feeling again. Don’t worry about it. Just follow the path now.

Cedric wondered what path to follow, but then the Pokemon’s tail fluttered again. When he looked in the direction they flowed, he saw a dirt path heading further into the trees. As he didn’t want to be caught by any more forces the enforcers would throw at them, Cedric went to the path and followed it.

There were wild Pokemon in the woods. He saw them occasionally, coming to investigate this human stranger in their home. But they didn’t bother him. Maybe it was the Pokemon he was holding onto. He wasn’t sure what this one was called. As he followed the path, it grew dark.

Several hours after he first set on the path, he emerged from the woods and found a grassy field. Immediately, he noticed a Ledian fly by. She came up to him and cooed curiously, calling over another one like her. While Red only had two stars on his shell, these wild ones had a dozen or more. And it wasn’t just two. When Cedric looked over the field, he saw hundreds, no, thousands… more that he could estimate. They weren’t the only Pokemon awake on this night, but they were the ones who captured his attention.

And then when he looked into the sky, he saw an amazing sight. The night sky was not brown and muddy like it had been in the city. It was black and velvety, sprinkled liberally with so many stars. Bright and bold ones that sometimes peeked at the city were alongside tiny and shy ones that he could never have seen before. But with a sense of awe, Cedric was filled with a deep sadness. “Red would have wanted to see this,” he said softly.

There was a bubble of laughter at his ear. When he turned his head, Cedric found himself looking into eyes as pure as the black sky above. The colorful little Pokemon floated away from him, smiling and clasping its hands together. Brilliant sparkles like the stars in the sky swirled around it, then dove into the Pokeball on Cedric’s belt. Following that, there was a pink flash as the ball released its resident.

Red was there, flying alongside his wild peers. His black eyes were unclouded and sparkling. His breath came easily and he was able to smile. “Ko dah!” he squealed, then hugged Cedric.

“Red!” Cedric clasped him to his chest again and was thrilled to feel a lively response. “It’s a miracle… I’m so glad to have you back.” He then looked back up to the odd little Pokemon, who was still smiling at him. “You must have done this somehow. Thank you.”

It closed its eyes and giggled merrily. But soon, its mood turned somber. It looked east to where the city lay, as if considering something of great difficulty and grave importance. Perhaps even its power to grant miracles was small compared to the might of the city.

Something still had to be done.

...

R/S entry: It is said that in lands with clean air, where the stars fill the sky, there live Ledian in countless numbers. There is a good reason for this – the Pokemon uses the light of the stars as its energy.

Ruby entry: A legend states that Jirachi will make true any wish that is written on the notes attached to its head when it awakens. If this Pokemon senses danger, it will fight without awakening.

[Ysavvryl]

It's quiet. I've been busy.

Lickitung is one of those Pokemon that I forget about. Given that I can usually remember a large number of them (partly due to this thread), yeah, I just don't notice it. It comes up whenever I play the Kanto games because of that one trade you have to make just to get it. Because of that, I gave Lickitung and Lickilicky a fan club.

I'm thinking of something for Valentine's Day in February. Any suggestions?

In Process: Unown
On Deck: Mawile, Kricketot/Budew
Reserve: ???/??? (#246-7)


LICKITUNG AND LICKILICKY


In a kids’ clubhouse made of old wooden planks, Lucy the Lickitung observed a yellow apple on the old card table. It was sitting near the edge, near a boy sitting in a metal folding chair. The fruit had little tan streaks; not a bad sign, just the kind of apple it was. Lucy was on a bench by the wall, five feet from the apple. But that was close enough. When the boy wasn’t paying attention, she twitched her tail and flicked out her long pink tongue. She snatched the apple and was soon munching on it.

The boy turned in time to see his snack gone. “Hey! Lucy! That was my apple.”

She spat out the seed core. “<And it was a good one too,>” she commented with a goofy grin. He tongue hung out about two feet, which always gave her a goofy look.

“You should know better than to leave apples in their reach,” another boy at the table said. There were five boys total, and two girls. With them were three other Lickitungs as well as a Lickilicky. The oldest Pokemon was busily grooming himself on an old stuffed chair a little away from the rest.

“But that’s one of the things that makes them so cool,” the leader of the group said. He put a notebook on the table. “Anyhow, I’ve got a great idea for the Chairman’s contest! It’ll make our Lickitung Supreme Fan Club the obvious winner. Wanna hear it?”

The group of kids leaned forward, eager to hear about it. The International Pokemon Fan Club had a yearly contest for more specific clubs to showcase their favorite Pokemon. If a smaller club won, they got a ten thousand dollar prize and a trip, this year a weekend cruise on the SS Anne. Plus all the articles written in big magazines and lots of respect from everybody. It was an open-ended contest, though, just to produce something that made the Pokemon great. On considering entering, many small clubs were overwhelmed by the possibility. As far as they knew, no club dedicated to Lickitung and Lickilicky had yet won. It put more pressure on them to do something great enough to win.

And the club leader had something in mind finally. “We’re going to make a movie starring our Pokemon, only using them! It’ll be a western, cause we can use the old farm and the desert for the landscape. And we’ve got enough of them to make a good movie.”

“That would be cool,” one of the boys said.

“<I wanna be a movie star!>” Lucy piped up, jumping to stand on the bench.

“<Me too!>” one of her friends, Pink, added.

“<Sounds intriguing,>” the Lickilicky Mitch said, pausing in his grooming. He then licked his paw and started scrubbing his left ear.

“Who’s gonna write the script?” one of the girls asked.

“We all will,” the club leader said. “So we’ve got Mitch, Slobber, Drulz, Pink, and Lucy. Mitch can be the Sheriff.”

“Why does your Pokemon get to be the Sheriff?” another boy asked. “Drulz can be a Sheriff.” Not surprisingly, this boy was the Trainer of Drulz.

“Cause Mitch is the only Lickilicky we have,” the leader said. “But if you can get Drulz evolved in the next few weeks, we can have them be the Sheriff and the bad guy. If we only have one, the Lickilicky gets to be Sheriff, because the hero’s gotta be the strong one.”

“I guess.”

“<I will be strong, so I can be the Sheriff!>” Drulz promised, rolling his tongue up and flexing his arm muscles.

“<I don’t care one way or another,>” Mitch said.

“Can Lucy be the pretty woman?” Lucy’s Trainer asked. She was the girl wearing a cute flower-adorned hat. “Lots of westerns have a pretty woman, and I’m training her to compete in Contests, when I’m old enough.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” the leader said. “Cause she doesn’t mind costumes, while Pink won’t sit still long enough to be dressed. Pinky can be the Sheriff’s sidekick.”

Dropping down from hanging by her tongue on a ceiling beam, Pink put in her own comment, “<I can’t stand those weird bows, bleh.>” She then scampered around, looking for something new to pass the time with.

“<I love them,>” Lucy said, content with her role. “<They make me look pretty.>”

“<Does she tie them around your tongue?>” Slobber asked.

She made a face. “<I couldn’t stand that! No, she ties them around my neck or tail. And I’m not going to have a tongue piercing, before you ask.>”

Drulz picked up the end of his tongue and noted, “<I’ve thought about getting spikes pierced into my tongue. That would be a great weapon!>”

“<A tongue spike? Gross.>”

“<It would keep you from picking stuff up,>” Mitch pointed out. “<And if you’re gonna evolve soon, your’s won’t stick out as much all the time.>” He tapped his own tongue, which almost fit into his mouth. It made him look like he had a big lip instead of a big tongue. “<Then the spike would be in your mouth most of the time.>”

“<But it’s a tongue spike,>” Drulz insisted. “<It’d be really macho.>”

“Wait a minute,” one of the club members said, putting his hand on the table hard enough to shake the cereal snack mix in the large bowl. “Westerns always have a big gun fight, you know, the duel at high noon. But I don’t think anybody’s gonna let us use guns, even just for a movie.”

“We could use water guns,” another boy suggested. “Or Nerf guns.”

“That would look stupid.”

“We’ll just have a Pokemon battle instead of a gun duel,” the club leader said. “Which would make it especially cool if we had two Lickilicky stars. A double Rollout battle would be epic. And besides, both Mitch and Drulz know Fling, so we can kind of have a sort of duel.”

“Would be more like a gun duel if I could get my hands on a Shadow Ball TM,” the Trainer of Drulz grumbled. “Or Shockwave.”

“I like the Fling idea,” one of the boys said.

“I like the Rollout duel better,” Lucy’s Trainer said.

“So what’s Slobber gonna do?” Slobber’s Trainer asked.

“Slobber can be the weird gold-mining guy,” the club leader suggested. “He’s got the perfect personality for it.”

“<Does the weird gold-mining guy part have a scene where he shoots rubber bands with his tongue?>” Slobber asked. “<That’s my special talent.>”

“<I’m sure they’ll put something like that in, since you do that all the time,>” Lucy said. “<Just don’t wreck my costume.>”

“What’s the story going to be?” the other girl club member asked. “We can’t have the bad guy be a cattle rustler, as we can’t have Miltanks or Taurus to act as cattle. But we have to make an awesome bad guy, as well as an awesome Sheriff.”

“Well we’ve got a gold miner,” the club leader said, starting to write notes in his notebook. “So our setting is a Gold Rush town, which is probably wild and lawless. The people of the town, as shown by Lucy and Slobber, are being terrorized by the bad guy Drulz… or Mitch, whichever. They call in the hero Mitch, or Drulz, and his sidekick Pink.”

“Pink’s outta be known as Pink the Wild Child,” Pink’s Trainer suggested. “Cause that’s what I call her.”

“<And because Jungle Girl Pink doesn’t fit into a Western,>” she said, now standing on the bench beside Lucy.

“Right, the sidekick Pink the Wild Child. They come in to town to clean things up. We may have to make the three Lickitungs play multiple roles, so we have a big looking town and a bad guy gang. The new Sheriff and sidekick come in and put the law on the lawless town. The bad guy then kidnaps Lucy in an attempt to get even, but then the Sheriff comes in and challenges the bad guy to a duel. The Sheriff wins, and everybody’s happy.”

“Except the bad guy Lickilicky,” one of the boys pointed out. “He gets put in jail.”

“But the local priest comes in and talks him into having a change of heart,” the club leader said. “So he vows to never be a bad guy again. Then everybody has a happy ending.”

“Who’s going to play the priest? Slobber would be too silly.”

“And Pinky couldn’t act respectable.”

“Lucy can be the priest too,” the club leader said, jotting it in his notebook. “She’s the only one we could get in a priestly costume, anyhow.”

“But then who’s going to marry the Sheriff and the pretty woman, if Lucy is also the priest?” Lucy’s Trainer asked.

“We can use camera tricks for that,” the smartest club member suggested.

“And how is the bad guy going to be captured?” another boy asked. “They can’t use handcuffs.”

“<I’ve got something more useful than handcuffs,>” Mitch said. Then the Lickilicky snapped out his tongue, far faster than Lucy had when she was snatching the apple. Mitch gave the boy his answer by wrapping his enormous tongue around his body, to the point where he couldn’t move.

The club members laughed as the boy yelped. Mitch let him go readily, although even for that short capture, the boy’s clothes and hair were soaked. “Aw man, Mom’s gonna kill me for coming home covered in drool again.”

“Just tell her that’s a sign of how much you love your favorite Pokemon,” one of the girls said.

“Right,” the leader said. “So does everybody agree, that the Lickitung Supreme Fan Club is going to make a Western movie and win the Fan Club’s ultimate contest?”

“Yes!” every kid and Pokemon in the room agreed. And so it was decided to make the movie, The Fastest Tongue in the West.

...

Lickitung Platinum entry: When it extends its over-six-foot-long tongue, its tail quivers. There is a possibility they are connected.

Lickilicky D/P entry: It wraps things with its extendible tongue. Getting too close to it will leave you soaked in drool.

[IJuggler]

I love these stories

I would like to see Mawile(but of course, it's already in the planning) and Chinchou or Lanturn, if you haven't done either yet. If you have, I must've missed it O: I'll be spending a while catching up now!

[Paddypower]

I love all these one-shots, they're so cool and innovative =D.

Lickitung/Lickilicky one was awesome, I was a bit disappointed that I didn't see the actual Fastest Tongue in The West movie, but it was cool seeing them plan it.

[The_Shuppeteer_]

I liked the Ledian/Jirachi one. It made me cry.

Have you done a Mantyke one? Because if you haven't I'd like to request one. Or possibly Banette?

[Ysavvryl]

Hi new readers! I'll check on those requests, then add them if they're not in the list.

This entry is shorter than usual. But that's good, because it's a poem! I don't work with poetry very often, so I'm not too familiar with how to write traditional formal poems. It works out in this case, though.

In Process: Mawile
On Deck: Kricketot/Budew, Chinchou/Lanturn, Mantyke, Banette
Reserve: ???/??? (#246-7)


UNOWN


In my collection I had
Twenty six letters
And two punctuation marks
Neatly organized in Pokeballs
Controlled contained and tamed

But they never did much
With weak powers
With strange abilities
Lethargic and seemingly pointless
So I let them all go

Before I left the ruins
Leaving them behind
They did something strange
Six came up to me
And asked PARTY?

Party? Too strange to believe
I had abandoned them
But there was their question
Seeing no harm
I agreed to come

The freed letters seemed happy
Dashing this way and that
Squealing to the wild letters
A group came together
And spelled out BALLOONS!

To my surprise and shock
There appeared balloons!
Dozens of them
A rainbow of bright colors
All tied with curling ribbons

And this was not the end
As they decorated the dim ruins
There came PUNCH and COOKIES
STREAMERS and BUBBLE MACHINE
And even MUSIC

There came an argument
Over what kind of CAKE
Some wanted WHITE
Some wanted YELLOW
Others wanted DARK CHOCOLATE

Unable to decide
They came to me to know
Which cake to create
Not wanting to offend further
I suggested a layer of all three

The letters looked happy
And with some fuss and rearranging
Produced a grand three layer cake
With butter cream frosting
In a strange geometric pattern

They danced and laughed
Playing alphabetical games
Telling pun filled jokes
And producing many strange things
By changing places with each other

Like OBOE
ZITHER
TIFFANY LAMP
OTTOMAN
CURSIVE TYPEWRITER
IGLOO
GAZEBO
METRONOME
CORNUCOPIA
BUST OF PROFESSOR OAK
GOLDEN AXE
SEAWEED PIZZA
YARMULKE
QUIRKY HEIRLOOM TIGER RUG
And PINK FLAMINGO

They dissolved some items
And kept others around
Seeing the game I had to know
After I kept them for so long
Why had they never done this before?

They answered with ALONE
But then I had my Pokemon
The twenty six letters
And two punctuations marks
Out together on sunny days

They answered SEPARATE
And then ALONE
NO POWER
NO WORDS
NO MAGIC

Then I knew their secret
Letters of ink must be controlled
Given rules of grammar
Given strict attention
Letters of ink must be tamed

But they were letters as Pokemon
Letters of life must be free
Given company of peers
Given no orders nor rules
Letters of life must be poems

...

Unown Platinum entry: When alone, nothing happens. However, if there are two or more, an odd power is said to emerge.

[The_Shuppeteer_]

That was so sweet! Like a nursery rhyme! And I loved how they were making things like "BUST OF PROFESSOR OAK" and "PINK FLAMINGO". I laughed so hard!
Can't wait for the Mantyke and Banette ones.

[kuriboh361]

Wow! Just wow! I loved that poem which had that little lesson it in. Oh, and didn't we already do a Bannete one?

[Ysavvryl]

Banette was a guest entry by someone else. I haven't covered it yet. So this one is in a genre I don't normally write in. But I like experimenting.

Edit: But I did notice that I've covered Kricketot, so that got cut from the next entry. Now excuse me while I fire my 'search' feature...

In Process: Budew
On Deck: Chinchou/Lanturn, Mantyke, Banette
Reserve: ???/??? (#246-7)


MAWILE AND DELCATTY


Sonja the Delcatty woke up, stretched, sharpened her claws on an old wooden post, then tended to some cleaning. She had no plans, no obligations. Unlike other Pokemon, she had no Master or Trainer. That was exactly what she wanted. She was free to do what she wanted.

However, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to be here. It was a creepy place, an empty fairground. The tents were gone, but a number of small permanent booths remained. Everywhere, there were remains of fairs and celebrations: strings of flags fluttering off posts, some forgotten trash hiding in corners, and signs that were outdated by a few weeks. With the electric lights giving both harsh brightness and deep shadows, it was hard to tell what exactly was out here.

“And I’m hungry,” she thought aloud. She should probably leave the fairgrounds and find somewhere else to stay. If not for the creepiness, then for the lack of food.

Sonja still sniffed around, hopeful that there was some forgotten hot dog or hamburger. Or even bread; she’d eat that now, although she wouldn’t like it so much. But all the food stalls were empty and cleaned, smelling like disinfectant cleaner. While they might not have gotten rid of all the trash, they certainly got rid of the food trash. She might come check the fairgrounds out in a few days, when another fair was set to start. There would be plenty of food then, and plenty of gullible humans to beg from.

Deciding to leave for certain, she walked along the dirt pathways to the exit. She wondered where she could go for some food and shelter. She didn’t want to restrict herself by choosing a home to live in, or a human to live with. There was a store around where she had gotten some good meals from on bad evenings. Could she be a store Pokemon? But then she’d have to stay at the shop. No more wandering around and seeing new things. It was a tough choice.

There was a movement in the shadows that made her freeze. She hadn’t smelled anything warning her of someone approaching. After a second, another Pokemon came out into the light. It had a scent of steel, which was why she had ignored it at first. It stood on two feet to be at eye level with her. Outwardly, it had a smooth flesh-colored armor coat covering most of its body. A long gray steel horn came off the top of its head and hung back like a long ponytail. Despite the natural metal armor, it had large black eyes and a small mouth.

“There’s nothing going on here now, Mawile,” Sonja said. “Might as well go on back home.”

“Ko?” the steel creature asked.

“Humans won’t be back here for a few days. Go home; you never know what kind of creeps are wandering about a place like this.”

“Ko,” he said, holding his hands together in a shy frightened manner. His eyes got watery.

Sonja put her pink nose to the air and tilted her tufted ears back. “What’s a tough Pokemon like you got to fear? And why’ve you got to act cute to get help? You’re metal; you don’t have a cute fur collar, like I do naturally.

The Mawile shuffled closer to her, looking back into the darkness. He may not have had a fur collar, but his expression was cute and harmless looking. Most likely, his wide eyes had something to do with that. “Ko ko?”

Shaking her head, she took a few steps along the path. “I’m not Koko. I’m Sonja. Not too bright, are you? Can you say anything else?”

“Ko…” he said sadly, then started walking after her.

“Figures. What am I supposed to call you then? Ko?”

“Ko?”

“I guess. So then, Ko, know where there’s any food about?”

“Koooo… ko!” He stopped, then waved over to another area of the fairgrounds. Then, seemingly rethinking it, he put his hands together and lowered his head. “Koooo.”

Why’d she have to run into a coward? But if he knew where there was food, then it would be worthwhile to hang out with this Mawile for a night. “Ah, don’t be a sissy. I’m sure whatever’s out there, we can handle it. Or at least, I can. Where’s the chow?”

Ko waved for her to follow him, then went back down the fairgrounds path. He turned left at a crossing, where more permanent stalls were. As they went along, he kept looking from side to side, as if expecting an ambush at any time. His pace was uneven and his steel horns twitched to and fro. And, Sonja wasn’t sure of this, but she thought that the horns, almost grown completely together, seemed to have teeth.

“Geez, don’t have a heart attack,” she said casually. It made him jump forward and turn towards her. “I don’t smell anything worrisome, except maybe a lack of food. And there’s nothing I can hear that’s bad either.”

Although, the lack of any danger signs seemed to be a danger sign in itself. The empty fairgrounds were silent. There should have been some other Pokemon scrounging about in the night. But not even a Flying type was passing overhead. This place hadn’t seemed so bad by the morning’s daylight, but in this electric lit nighttime, something didn’t feel right.

“Kind of lonely out here,” Sonja commented. “I really ought to come back when it’s lively.”

“Ko.” Then the Mawile tripped on something, falling onto his hands and knees. His horns made a solid thump when they hit the ground. Fiddling his hands about to make sure he was okay, he seemed embarrassed at his moment of being a klutz.

“Careful,” she teased, coming up to see what he had tripped on. There was a small metal square in the pathway. When Ko got off it, it lifted up. Some kind of pressure activated device. “Weird thing to be out in the middle of the walkway.”

Without warning, a strange instrument began to play. It was like a flute, but deeper and more mystical in tone. Some chimes accompanied it. While Sonja’s ears went back and Ko got even more tense, a distorted voice began speaking in human words. “Do you seek a guide to your fortune? I see past the veils of mystery.”

The Delcatty looked to the source of the voice and music. It turned out to be just a mechanical performer for the fair crowds. Within a small glass-walled booth, there was a robotic puppet of a Grumpig. With its native dark pearls around its body, it also wore strands of multi-colored pearls around its neck and dangles of multi-colored pearls from its ears.

Sniffing, Sonja swished her tail. “Just a puppet player. Unless the puppet happens to know where some food is. Where’s the chow, robot?”

“Your fortune,” the Grumpig puppet said, slowly blinking its eyes. “You must beware of treachery in new ones… that is what your aura defines. With a small payment, I could take a deeper look into this fortune.”

Sonja would have just passed this off as weird nonsense, but then she saw a flash of gray steel. Her instincts for battle kicking in, she jumped out of the way to face the Mawile. His horns had separated some, making them look even more like enormous jaws with razor-edged teeth. And he had brought them in front of his face instead of holding them behind.

Hissing, she lowered her poise to something more fitting of battle. “What’s this for? Overly superstitious, Ko?”

His eyes narrowed. His shoulders had gone from a pulled-in anxiety to a set-back confidence. “I like to play with my food a bit, ko,” he said in a clear and cool voice. “But ko, Miss Fortune Teller had to ruin things tonight.”

She began pacing around him. He kept his horns between his main body and her. “As much as I appreciate the concept of play, I am not food. Pokemon don’t eat each other.”

He put his paws to his chin, but his smile was sly. “I found that I like my food more intelligent than usual, ko.” He brought his steel horns up, opening them wide. “This will be the end of ko, Sonja the Delcatty.”

When he snapped those toothed horns at her, Sonja rolled to the side. “Fo-or-get it, dearie dangerous demented Ko,” she said in a sing-song voice. “You-u won’t be-e get-ting me-e.”

Ko’s eyes started to look drowsy. As the Sing attack kicked him into dreamland, Sonja turned and bolted. If she went as fast as she could, she could get out of the fairgrounds before the crazy Pokemon could catch up. She considered going to that shop after all. While it would be a less adventurous life, there would be less folks trying to eat her.

Ko stumbled back onto the pressure plate that triggered the Fortune Teller mechanism. “Do you seek to avoid disappointment?” the puppet asked. “I can show you the secret ways.”

...

Sapphire entry: Don’t be taken in by this Pokemon’s cute face – it’s very dangerous. Mawile fools the foe into letting down its guard, then chomps down with its massive jaws. The steel jaws are really horns that have been transformed.

Ruby entry: Delcatty prefers to live an unfettered existence in which it can do as it pleases at its own pace. Because this Pokemon eats and sleeps whenever it decides, its daily routines are completely random.

[LadyMiir]

Wow, that Mawile was -creepy-... O_o

[IJuggler]

<3 Mawile

Unlike other Pokemon, she had no Master or Trainer. That was exactly what she wanted.

I understood it, but it read oddly.

[SugarPesticide]

Banette was a guest entry by someone else.

Weird. Me getting off my lazy rear to actually post here, right when I'm mentioned ... is that an LOL, or a WTF?

Anyway, moving onto the latest story to avoid taking up too much space:

“Humans won’t be back here for a few days. Go home; you never know what kind of creeps are wandering about a place like this.”

DDT likes irony =D

you don’t have a cute fur collar, like I do naturally."

Bolded quotation mark should be added.

Mawile was freaky, aka I love it. Excellent work ^_^

[The Jewel of Life]

Well, I'm a little late to be jumping in here it seems, but I was able to read quite a few of your stories and I loved all of them. Also, I have an interesting idea- you should do a story about Darkrai and Drowzee. Yes, the two are related. Drowzee's leaf green entry mentions that it eats dreams, but can become sick if it eats too many bad ones. I bet you could get a good story out of that one!

[kuriboh361]

Another reason why I just love Mawile.....

[sharkun0]

That mawile is one smooth dude. I really thought he was a retard or something. You should do the Dratini line soon.

~Shark out

[Ysavvryl]

@The Jewel of Life: That is an awesome idea! You might try it yourself. I'll add it, just cause it really grabs me. I always find it fun to see two different authors interpret one idea.

I still don't have anything reserved for Valentine's Day. You can kind of call this for Groundhog's Day.

In process: Chinchou/Lanturn
On Deck: Mantyke, Banette, Drowzee/Darkrai, Dratini
Reserve: ???/??? (#246-7)


BUDEW AND LOTAD


It was a quiet sunny morning. The air still had a chill to it, although the snow had all disappeared. In the pond, the ice was mostly gone. Spring was a little ways away, so they just had to endure a little longer. Then the harsh Sinnoh cold would be eased.

By the shore of the pond, a Budew was crouched behind the wind shelter of a rock. He had hibernated for most of the winter, but he really needed the sun. The yellow bud on top of his head was closed, so that he had the maximum amount of sun-absorbing green was exposed. But should the temperature drop, he would be at risk of freezing to death. This was a dangerous time of the year.

A small splash came from the pond. “<Hey, Budew. It’s been a while.>”

He looked over to see a large cupped lilypad floating on the pond. Mostly floating. The closest part was lifted up, showing a pair of round eyes on a dark blue face. Budew bowed. “<Hey Lotad. Doesn’t seem that long. I spent most of it sleeping.>”

“<I spent most of it frozen and sleeping.>”

The flower Pokemon shivered at the thought. “<Ugh. I couldn’t stand that. I was in a hole in the ground.>”

By a twin pair of ripples, he could tell that Lotad was shrugging. “<It’s not too bad to me,>” she said. “<You wanna play now that we’re both awake?>”

“<No, thanks. It’s still too cold for me. The sun's not warm enough for me to open my bud and be active.>”

“<I see. We can just chat.>”

“<About what?>” He tried not to sound cross; Lotad had been a good friend of his last year. However, his kind did not appreciate winter. Not even the very tail end of it. As she said, since she lived in water, her kind could tolerate winter.

“<I dunno, just stuff. I know! When do you plan on evolving?>”

Budew sighed. “<I don’t know when. I can’t say when.>”

Lotad’s lilypad tilted up, showing her curious face. “<Why not?>”

“<Among the Budew, we are told that in order to evolve, we must find a day so wonderful that the sun shines within us. Only then can we turn into a Roselia.>”

“<Until the sun shines within you? Wouldn’t that be painful? The sun is supposedly a great big ball of fire.>”

He fluffed the small petals that hung below his face. “<It’s not literal. It’s some kind of riddle we must solve. I guess we have to get smarter to evolve. But I haven’t gotten that smart yet.>”

Lotad paddled closer, but not onto the shore. She had never come out of the clear pond because of her lilypad. According to her, it hurt to hold it up for long out of water. “<That’s tough. I’ve gotta find some rock apparently, but not until much later. My first evolution just comes with time, I think this summer.>”

“<I have to find a rock for my later evolution too.>”

“<Oh. Sorry to bring it up, then.>”

“<It’s no trouble. Maybe you can help me figure out this riddle. I don’t think today is a wonderful enough day, though. Too cold.>”

Then there came a rumble of a vehicle. Lotad dropped her lilypad to hide. Cautious but more curious, Budew turned to the nearby road. There was a white van coming to a stop by the pond. The driver’s door opened to release an old human man who was on the portly side, with a short gray beard. A thick wool sweater and hat protected him from the weather. “Such a nice brisk morning,” he said. “Lucas, are you ready for the day’s work?”

“Yes, Professor Rowan,” a voice called from the back of the van. There was a boy back there in a red coat, getting something out of their vehicle.

“<It’s just a couple of humans,>” Budew told his friend. “<They don’t seem that bad.>”

“<You sure?>” She tipped her pad up and peeked out at them.

The boy came around the van holding onto two black suitcases. He set them down, then yawned. “Oh… ‘scuse me.”

“Up a little late watching the Championship Battles?” Rowan teased.

Blushing, Lucas twisted his red cap. “Well, umm….”

The older man laughed. “It’s fine. Quite an exciting battle, wasn’t it? Cynthia’s not going to give up her title easily.”

“No she isn’t,” the boy agreed. He went back to the van for more items. “And she has some amazing Pokemon, doesn’t she? I keep wondering where she got them, like the Spiritomb.”

“The ones she has are all native to Sinnoh. Once you get to exploring, you could find them.” Rowan went to help, taking a folding table out of the van. “Then again, she was once one of my assistants, just as you are now. We could ask her where she got them. So which one of my starters do you want? You can have any of the three you’d like.”

“Oh, um… I dunno. I’m still thinking about it.”

“<What’re they doing?>” Budew wondered aloud. “<The humans who want battles usually don’t have this much stuff with them.>”

“<I think I know this deal,>” Lotad replied. “<They take you over to their little station there and give you a treat.>”

“<They give us a treat? And don’t capture us for good? That sounds fishy.>”

She caused ripple-shrugs again. “<Well you do have to let them take you peacefully, if temporarily. And they examine and measure you for some reason. I got the thingie on my leg from them.>” Raising her left front paw up, she showed off the small metal strap that was attached there.

“<But why?>”

“<I dunno. They’re scientiffs, or something like that.>”

“So, do you think we’ll run into that vicious red Gyarados that people are talking about?” Lucas asked, a tone of worry in his voice.

“<What?!>” Lotad squealed. “<There’s a Gyarados in this lake? Where?!>” She dropped her pad back on the water surface and turned about in a fright.

Rowan smiled and shook his head. “I doubt it. I doubt it actually lives here. For you see, a mysterious Pokemon is said to live at the bottom of this lake, a Pokemon that is renowned for being a master illusionist. It’s one of the local legends of this region. I would like to find proof of this legend some day, either to validate or disprove it.”

“<What’d he say?>” Lotad asked, shyly bringing her pad up.

“<He doesn’t think there’s a Gyarados around,>” Budew replied. “<But he suspects the daydream maker who lives on the bottom of the lake.>”

“<Oh. I’ve looked in that cave, but have never been able to enter it. It’s weird like that.>”

Once the humans had their equipment arranged, Rowan handed Lucas a small cloth bag that smelled wonderful, like spiced berries. “Okay, now you need to go round up some specimens. This bait should keep them calm and lure them into following you. But if they act aggressive, stay back and just tell me what kind it was.”

“What kind of Pokemon should I get?” Lucas asked.

“Whatever’s around that’ll cooperate.” He pointed to the side of the pond where Budew and Lotad were. “There’s a pair there that’s been observing us set up. Try getting them to come over.”

The boy looked at them. “A pair? I only see a Budew and their pollen always makes me sneeze.”

“It won't bother you this time of year. Look more carefully.”

“<What should we do?>” Budew asked.

“<Don’t worry about it,>” Lotad said, showing her left paw again. “<They should treat us nice, if they’re like the last guys who did this.>”

Lucas walked up to them, slowing as he got close. “Hi Budew. It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you. We just want to see you for a…” his eyes had been wandering between looking at the rosebud Pokemon and looking at other things: the grass, the rock, the water. Then he saw the eyes underneath the lilypad. “Oh, it’s a… I’m not sure, but it’s in the water.”

“That would be a Lotad,” Rowan called over. “But it won’t come out of the water on its own. Try catching it with your hands.”

“Um, okay.” He came to the pond and stepped in. He wore black boots and gloves, Budew noticed. “Hey, could I... take you out for a bit, little Lotad? It’ll be okay. You can come too, Budew.”

“<Mind the lilypad,>” Lotad said, then swam closer so Lucas could pick her up. The boy did so, stumbling a bit when he had her weight fully. As he took her to the table, Budew shook himself, then hopped after them.

“This lilypad weighs more than the rest of its body,” Lucas said as he placed her on a plastic mat on the table.

“That’s why they live in the water,” Rowan said. “Their ancestors and the rest of their evolution line come out of water easier… hmm, seems this one’s been tagged already.”

Budew hopped onto an extra chair in time to see the old man use something on Lotad’s arm thingie. “How’d you know it was a Pokemon?” Lucas asked.

“The lilypad,” he answered, tapping it. “You don’t see those plants this time of year. This one just came out of hibernation, most likely. Her friend too.” Rowan paused, then ran his hand along Lotad’s pad. “And the pad itself is a whole circle. The next stage for this Pokemon, Lombre, has a small wedge in the lilypad, so it can be identified even while underwater. And the Lombre’s body is larger and stronger, able to support the pad. She can’t. Take the notes quick so we can get her back.”

“Right.” As Lotad said, they took measurements and observations. Then they gave her a savory smelling bread they called a poffin. Once she was finished eating it, Lucas took her back to the pond.

Then Rowan offered his hand to Budew. “Did you want a turn? It doesn’t take long, as you’ve seen.”

Once Lotad was in the water, it was obvious that these humans had no intentions of keeping them. It still seemed kind of fishy, but at least harmless. Budew hopped onto the man’s hand and let himself be examined. At the end of it, he got a poffin treat and a ‘tag’ metal thingie attached to his right leg. Then they let him return to the pondside, where his friend was waiting.

“<See?>” she said. “<That was it. Humans aren’t that bad. Strange, yes, but not bad.>”

“<At least most of them are like that,>” Budew replied. Rowan and Lucas stayed for several hours, making observations and giving other Pokemon tags. Then, as another pair of young humans came into the pond’s area, the scientiffs packed up and left.

...

Budew Diamond entry: Over the winter, it closes its bud and endures the cold. In spring, the bud opens and releases pollen.

Sapphire entry: Lotad is said to have dwelled on land before. However, this Pokemon is thought to have returned to water because the leaf on its head grew large and heavy. It now lives by floating atop the water.

[scizorstrike]

Pretty good, Ysavvryl. just one small thing

Rowan went to help, taking a folding table out of the van. “Then again, she was once one of my assistants

thought i should point that out

[Missingno. Master]

Nice. And just remember, I do read every one of these stories, even if I don't reply after each one.

Also, I'd like to suggest an Ekans/Koffing story.