From: Susan <dragon0313@aol.commies> Subject: [PW!] The story without a decent title.... Date: Friday, February 18, 2000 6:37 PM Ivy slowly opened her eyed. She blinked. Where was she? She seemed to be in a dark space big enough for an eevee to lie down in. It was cushy and soft. The little eevee turned her head and was surprised to see the pretty blue face of an oddish. Now, what was that oddish's name? Amar....Amaranth! That was it. Now she knew where she was. She was in a basket of a bicycle. Ron's bicycle. Ron was that nice boy who'd made her warm and dry when she was soaking wet. That didn't explain why it was dark in the basket, though, she thought as her wandering mind came home. "Vee, eevee eevee?" "Oddish!" Amaranth moved to one side, her leaves swishing out of the way. Light flooded the make-shift bed. Ivy squinted. It was nice of Amaranth to shade the basket for her. Ivy liked plant pokemon. She wished she could be one, but eevees didn't have that option. "Ivy!" That was Ron's voice. She was glad Daniel had let her go with Ron. "Ivy, we're here!" Ivy peeped her head from the basket. She asked Amaranth where "here" was. Amaranth did a sort of shrug. She had no idea either. "Ponyta!" called Ember to her friends in the basket. Truth be told, Ember was jealous of Ivy. Amaranth seemed to have found a new best friend. Amaranth jumped from the basket to join Mandy as she dismounted the horse. Without a thought, Ivy followed. "We have to find Erika's gym now," Mandy said to the assembled Pokemon. "If you see it, give a shout." "They can't read," Ron said, grinning. "I remember where it was from when we were here last. This way." Minutes later they'd reached the gym. It was marked by a line of Peeping Toms at the windows. Mandy put Ember inside her pokeball, so she wouldn't light anything on fire accidently. She hoisted Amaranth to her shoulder, Ron did likewise with Ivy. They stepped inside and up to a desk. "Hello. Are you here to take the course in plant pokemon?" asked the receptionist, noticing Amaranth on Mandy's shoulder. "No, we'd like to challenge Erika." "Oh. Right that way." She pointed a direction, through an imaculate garden. Amaranth lept off Mandy's shoulder and pranced up the path. They heard an exclamation of delight. "Oh, how cute!" Mandy ran after Amaranth, Ron and Ivy close behind. They found Amaranth being hugged by a person that must be Erika. "Is this your Oddish?" she asked. "You bet. Her name's Amaranth." Erika smiled at the name, recognizing the reference. "That's a good name. Are you here for a battle?" Mandy nodded. Erika sighed and put Amaranth on the grass, "Very well. But be warned, I shall not lose." She lead them to a wider grass arena. "This will be a one-on-one match. For my pokemon I'll use Vileplume." She released a spectacularly colored Vileplume to the center of the arena. Mandy was obviously not happy to send out Ember. At least it appeared that way to Amaranth. Amaranth could understand that, she wouldn't want to beat such a nice person as Erika either. "Ember, fire spin." As a whirling fire sprouted around Erika's Vileplume, Erika called, "Sleep powder!" Powder flew from the center of the flower. It danced around the hapless ponyta's nose. Ember wobbled dangerously, but the flames around the Vileplume grew higher. All the remaining powder was stopped. Mandy breathed a sigh of relief, then whacked herself on the head for stupidly inhaling some of the airborne spores. She was feeling a little woozy now, but called out, "Ember umm, use...What attacks does Ember have? Oh yeah! Stomp!" "Watch out Vileplume! Use stunspore!" The flames of Ember's firespin died down and the stunspore attack was unhindered. Ember was frozen in place with one hoof ready to stomp. "Ember, ember attack!" Ember forced a poof of flame through her mouth. It hit the Vileplume on a petal, knocking it over. It was down for the count. Mandy rushed over to Ember and squirted paralyz heal on her. "Great job Ember. We're going to take a vacation after this." "I must congratulate you on an excellent match," said Erika. "Here's your Rainbow Badge." She walked over to Mandy and handed her the sparkling pin. "I'm next," Ron said, clearing his throat, "Same rules?" "All right. I'll use Victreebell." She recalled the Vileplume and sent out a Victeebell that was just as beautifull. "I'll use my Lapras, Flipper." Flipper appeared on the field and Erika almost visibly smiled. "A water pokemon? Victreebell, vine whip." "Send out ice beams until I say stop!" The vines kept meeting up with cold beams. Each time they'd freeze and crumble. It looked as though that combination would end in a stalemate. "Victreebell, use sleep powder!" The sleep powder hit as Flipper's final ice beam struck the flower. They both fell at the same time. "That was a weird fight," Ron said, torn between amusement at the odd predicament and worry for his sleeping friend. "Yes, that certainly was odd. Our pokemon seem to be evenly matched." A wide smile lit the gym leader's face. It lit most of the room, too. "I thought I'd beaten you for sure. I award you a Rainbow Badge and I hope we meet again." After the pair had said goodbye to Erika, they settled in at the Pokecenter for the night. Ivy had never been in a Pokecenter before, she thought it was a nice place for a visit, but wouldn't want to live there. "Guess what we're doing tommorow," Ron started. Mandy glared fiercly at him. "This is going to involve something I don't like, isn't it?" "You could say that. We're flying down to the S.S. Anne in Vermillion." "Why do we have to fly down? We could just walk." "It's leaving inside a week. We're flying." Mandy groaned, but she didn't protest. She hadn't been sure when the S.S.Anne was leaving, but she'd wanted to go. Ron was right this time, walking would take too long. "This is the *last* time we fly anywhere," she saw Ron's grin, "I mean it this time!" "Yeah, sure." TBC? -Susan, Jedi Hamster Official WDTSF Spontaneous Vocalization Specialist; Director of Unexpected Screaming. Defender of truth, justice, freedom and hamsters. Contact my hamster at Dinsdale@rinkworks.com.