Road to Pokémon

Martin was trying to keep an open mind about things, but he had to admit that he didn't really like this route.
Big cities always seemed so impersonal and cold and this route was connecting two of them.
Furthermore all those clouds both of perfume and pollution really weren't good for one's lungs, especially not for Sera's.
But they had set out to discover more of the world and that meant all of the continent. After all there might just be some wonders hidden in places one wouldn't expect for them to be in.
People of all kinds could be found in places like these, mostly because there were an awful lot of people around these parts.
It was unlikely, but maybe they would even meet someone from Amicitia. Hopefully that would happen soon however.
Martin felt a coughing fit coming on.

Celine breathed in the flowery-scented air with a smile upon her face. Auro looked sickened by the smell, however, wrinkling his snout and sneezing. He was making a fine show of it, over-exaggerating the sneeze until he was practically having a coughing fit because he had upset his diaphragm. Celine looked at her pokemon, torn between concern and hilarity as Auro wheezed and hiccuped at the same time, creating a very strange sound.

"You alright there, Auro?" she asked her pokemon, trying not to snicker. She didn't quite succeed, though, and her pokemon looked at her. He rolled his eyes and snorted in disgust at her, before immediately hiccuping again, and sent her into uncontrolled laughter.

Wandering on this unpleasant path of odor, an unexpected sound reached the Friendship Rater's ear. What exactly was causing this sound was not clear, but it sounded like someone being quite close to vomiting their own lungs out.
Hopefully that was not the case, but just to make sure for the event of someone actually needing help, Martin found himself looking around, trying to find out what was the cause for these rather painful-sounding noises. Much to his dismay it was that impertinent girl he had already run into several times prior. Just what was the reason for them to keep running into each other? However - as annoying as the lady might be, that still was no reason not to help someone who might be in serious need of assistance. Begrudgingly the gentleman walked over.

Celine couldn't help herself from giggling nonstop. Every time she had almost calmed down enough to stop laughing, Auro would make the strange sound again, and she would be sent into the uncontrollable giggles again. Indeed, her stomach and cheeks were starting to hurt from the nonstop laughter.

"Ahhh, Auro, stop!" she pleaded between bouts of laughter. "It hurts to laugh! Stop, please, stop!"

Auro just rolled his eyes at her before hiccuping and sneezing again. Celine fell to her knees, clutching her stomach as she continued laughing. 'Okay, deep breaths,' she told herself. She refused to look at Auro and focused on taking in a breath and then letting it out slowly. She finally calmed down this way and looked back up at her pokemon, still grinning.

Auro gave her a look that clearly said, 'Are you done now?' Celine smirked at her pokemon and patted him on the back. "There, there, I'm sure you're always internally laughing at me, so this is just some payback."

Auro rolled his eyes at her again, letting out a soft cry. It seemed like his hiccups had finally subsided, thankfully.

Finally the Friendship Rater had reached the other trainer, whose face had taken on quite the reddish shade. However since he did not know about the reason for her laughter, he remained concerned for her wellbeing.
"Hello there. Are you all right, miss? You have taken on quite a reddish shade there. Are you allergic against the perfume maybe?"
Allergies could be an annoying thing. And if they were bad enough, they could easily end up being life-threatening. Probably Celine was okay, but there still was a chance she was not. And Martin'd rather be thought of a fool for having attempted to save a life than to simply ignore someone in need.

Celine turned at the concerned words, to come face-to-face with the weird guy who had a togepi. Seriously, why did he show up in every place she had been to recently? Was the luck of the universe against her or something? The man just rubbed her the wrong way, for no apparent reason at all. She sneered at the man.

"I'm fine; no allergies here. Auro here was simply amusing me," she stated loftily, narrowing her eyes at the man. "Anyway, where's your little friend who's got a grudge against me?" she asked, looking around for the man's togepi. She knew the little troublemaker disliked her and had an inordinately lucky streak when it came to using metronome.

And here Martin found himself reminded of why he didn't like this girl's attitude again.
He also found himself questioning her eyesight, considering how - as usual - Sera was sitting in his arms again, quite visible to everyone.
However, instead of simply answering her question, the gentleman decided to have a bit of fun on her expense.
"Who do you mean? I have quite a few friends and I am sure you have quite a few beings holding grudges against you."
Of course Martin was happy about all of it having been a false alarm, but then again this meant that he was trapped in a conversation with this brat. Again. He was beginning to suspect she had been doing this on purpose just to ruin his day.

Celine then realized that the togepi was in the man's arms and her cheeks heated up. How had she missed the stupid pokemon? Her eyes snapped up to the man's face as he spoke. She was sure that he was mocking her somehow. She stopped herself from saying anything more, however. She didn't like the guy, it was true, but there was no need to invite trouble where it didn't belong -that scene by the cafe and when Auro got really hurt in hers and Summer's battle was enough to teach her that.

She merely rolled her eyes at the man and turned away, not wanting to get involved in another argument with the overly-idealistic friendship rater. She turned just in time to see a flash of yellow and black out of the corner of her eye. She flashed her head towards the source of the color and grinned sharply as she saw an elekid sneaking behind one of the many perfume carts. It had to be a wild pokemon, from its disheveled appearance.

"Auro, take a look at your new partner-in-crime," she whispered to her friend, gesturing subtly towards the elekid.

Auro focused his attention on the elekid and rose into the air without needing told what to do. Celine grinned as Auro sailed overhead and suddenly dove, picking up the elekid and dropping it into the middle of the sidewalk, where it lay stunned for a second before getting to its feet with an angry cry, electricity starting to spark from the plugs on its head.

Celine didn't let the elekid attack, tossing a pokeball at it quickly.

Haley carried out 1 launched of one Capture Rate 2 :

Martin just rolled his eyes upon seeing the girl act without thinking, throwing a Pokéball at a Pokémon she had not even attempted to talk to before. How did she expect to know whether they would get along? This was not going to end well, that the Friendship Rater was certain of.
But while the immorality of randomly catching unsuspecting Pokémon was clear, there was nothing the gentleman could do about it sadly. Just why did most trainers find it so difficult to comprehend that abducting other beings against their will and forcing them to do battle was something that some people might believe to be morally objectionable?

"YES!" Celine grinned, walking over to the pokeball and picking it up. "I caught an elekid! Now we have an advantage over one of your weaknesses, Auro!"

Auro let out a displeased cry, cuffing Celine on the head lightly as he flew over her head, coming to land in front of her. She grinned. "Oh come on, you know I think you're awesome, Auro. But both of us have to admit that you have weaknesses -everyone does, unfortunately."

Auro rolled his eyes. Then he stared at the pokeball in Celine's hand. She looked down at it and shrugged. "It may be upset at getting caught... I'm not sure I should let it out right now. It's an electric type, after all. It could cause some real trouble if it set its mind to it. Though, I should check it's gender and moves, I suppose."

She pulled out a small, strange-looking machine. It had an indentation on the top of it, where a pokeball could be fitted. She placed the pokeball on it and pressed a button on the device.

"Elekid, the electric pokemon. Elekid stores electricity in its body. If it touches metal and accidentally discharges all its built-up electricity, this Pokémon begins swinging its arms in circles to recharge itself. This Elekid is male, and knows the moves Quick Attack, Leer, and Thundershock."

Celine smiled. "Wellp, looks like you have a bro on the team, Auro."

Martin sighed silently once more.
The young trainer did not seem to care at all about the Pokémon itself being upset or sad, only about the fact that it might attack her or her Pokémon. Of course she was right to be worried for their safety, but still it was painful to see how little she seemed to care for the Electric type's emotions.
If they were to ever meet again - and knowing his luck Martin just knew they would - he would have to pay attention to this Pokémon's behaviour. Would Celine treat it well? Or would this become another one of these horrid examples of bad relationships, only held together by a Pokéball and the refusal to let go?

Celine looked over and noticed that the man still stood there watching her. She raised her eyebrows. "Are you still here?" She asked rudely, wondering why on earth the man was staring at her like that. She didn't even know the guy's name -she was sure he had said it at some point, but it wasn't like she cared about things like that.

"Any particular reason you're staring at me as if I just chopped up a magikarp and started devouring it raw in front of you?" she asked, voice full of sarcasm as she rolled her eyes.

"Oh, I am just worried about the relationship between you and your new Pokémon, considering that you did not seem to have paid much attention to his personality or willingness to be caught before catching him. Let's just say that I have a feeling this might not end well."
And knowing this girl she would not understand his position in the slightest, possibly be slightly offended and definitely quick to argue against his position with empty arguments, simply to try and defend against the underlying criticism that was contained in the Friendship Rater's words.
This trainer really was quite a handful...

Celine rolled her eyes at the man's words. "Wow, you're still going on about that stuff? Look, pokemon are bred to battle. They LIKE battling. If we didn't catch them and have them battle for us, they would just battle in the wild and probably destroy our towns in the process without even trying; so why don't you get off your high horse and accept the inevitable, hmm?"

She shook her head, confused as to why someone wouldn't understand something so simple, in her opinion.

She backed away in shock as a big, snake-like pokemon reared back from behind the man, crying out a loud, "Seviper!" She threw a look at Auro.

"Don't attack just yet, Auro. Use a Dragon Breath on it if it attacks!" she ordered Auro quickly. Auro gave a nod, rustling his wings in anticipation for a fight.

"Oh, do you truly believe that? Only a select few Pokémon actually are as aggressive as you describe. I suggest checking that Pokédex of yours for Milotic or Togekiss for example. There are only very few Pokémon who actually would destroy towns and they could easily be kept in check. And before you try to counter this, please consider that I have several years of experience at understanding Pokémon."
Then however a variety of shrieks, one of them coming from the trainer in front of him, turned the Friendship Rater's attention to something else. There appeared to be a wild Seviper in the streets, scaring the passersby.
"Sadly Seviper is one of these aggressive Pokémon...", Martin muttered quietly, hoping to be able to resolve the situation in a peaceful way.
"Sera, could you please use Charm? Maybe we can manage to calm it down."
And thus the Togepi obliged, wandering closer to the Poison type, yet staying away far enough to be out of the range of its attacks. She then made the cutest face anyone could imagine while waving towards the snake with a stubby arm, greeting it.