The Bug, the Bird, and the Swordsman

Akuroma walked towards Pecha forest, his new form as a Gallade still quite fresh from evolution. It wasn't the easiest getting used to, seeing as he was much taller than when he was a Kirlia. Not to mention his emotion sensing capabilities seemed to have diminished some. Had the then-Kirlia had known that, he might of not minded evolving into a Gardevoir instead. However there's no changing what happened, and Akuroma planned on taking full advantage of his new form.

He'd have lots of time to practice, it seemed. Violet from the dojo had too many customers to train him just yet, meaning he'd have to wait on learning Close Combat and Night Slash. At least Pecha Forest would be a good place to train his new form.

(42/47 energy)

After having traveled through pretty much all the land in his escape from the clan. But now finally his travels had brought him back to the Pecha Forest, one of the few places Ned actually didn't really mind that much being in. There were enough trees to drink from, many places to hide from Flying types and a pleasant lack of Fire types in the area.
And so the Bug type was once more hiding between the roots of one of the many trees, silently sipping tree sap and waiting for his evolution as usual. But...maybe this was too obvious a place to be for a Nincada. Should he try hiding up in the treetops maybe? But then he would make far too easy a target for Flying types, would he not?


(E=29-5=24)

A young Fletchling darted in between the many trees of Pecha Forest, flying at high speeds in an attempt to test herself whilst she flew. Narrowly missing one of the trees with a quick spin to switch her body and wingspan to a 'horizontal' position, Arietta didn't quite have time to recover before a tall Gallade came into view. Quickly tucking in her wings, Arie only just avoided crashing straight into the stranger, instead ending up in the leafy branches of one of the trees behind the psychic and fighting type pokemon.

With a small groan, Arie got back to her feet, perching neatly on the nearest branch and shaking her head and body in an attempt to fix her feathers. Confident that she was uninjured despite the collision, Arietta hopped to the edge of the branch to talk to the Gallade.
"I'm so sorry!" she called, hoping that the Gallade wouldn't resent her for nearly crashing into him.

Arietta
Energy: 11
16 - 5 for entry

Akuroma blinked as something whizzed by him, his immediate instinct having him charge up a Thunder Punch in order to fight whoever nearly hit him. Instead he found himself facing a small Fletchling who was currently checking herself for injuries. Letting his Thunder Punch fade, Akuroma listened to the small flying type's apology. "It's not problem, you didn't harm me so there's no need for an apology," he responded, waving his hand a bit at the Fletchling.

"In any case, what's a small bird like you doing here? Wouldn't it be better to fly fast in some place less populated by trees and Pokémon?" the Gallade asked as he stood there.

Suddenly something surprising happened.
While he could not make out what exactly was being said, Ned heard some sort of noise from somewhere nearby, followed by two Pokémon talking.
This was not a good sign. Talking Pokémon meant intelligent Pokémon. And intelligent Pokémon rarely visited these parts of the forest unless...they had come here looking for him.
This needed to be investigated further lest the Nincada were to find himself suddely surprised and unable to escape his enemies.
Trying to figure out which direction the sound had originated from, the Ground type crawled through the undergrowth of the forest, hiding as well as he could until he stumbled upon what appeared to be a Fletchling and a Gallade. Now how could he get them to leave without noticing him?

Arietta visibly relaxed as the Gallade replied, revealing that he didn't harbour any ill will for the near-accident. The much taller Pokemon then continued speaking, asking her a question that brought all the energy back to the young Fletchling.
"Oh that's easy! With all the trees here it's more fun to try and dodge them when you're flying fast. Anyone can fly in the open sky, but only those who practice are good enough to dodge all the trees," she replied with a smile, ignoring the fact that her collision insinuated she wasn't as good as those who supposedly practiced.
"Normally the Pokemon around here keep to themselves. I didn't expect to find someone as tall as you here either," she added, answering the other half of the Gallade's query, "Which makes me curious as to why you're here."

The Gallade smirked slightly when the Fletchling asked about his own presence. "I'm training myself as well. I only recently evolved and I was hoping to get used to this new form before I head over to Grassveil's Dojo," he explained. As he finished talking, the horn atop his head twitched a slight bit, causing him to look over at the undergrowth near the pair.

"Ned? Why're you hiding? It's Akuroma," the Gallade said as he leaned down to try and peer under the undergrowth to see the Nincada. He didn't expect to see Ned here in Pecha Forest. In fact, he though he would have evolved by now. Though perhaps hiding under trees isn't really doing the Nincada any good in evolving.

Dracorexion carried out 12 launched of one Pecha Forest :

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Okay, so these Pokémon didn't seem to be too much of a- why did the Gallade know Ned's name?
"Huh? Akuroma?You...you look...diffferent.", Ned stated as he carefully crawled out of the undergrowth.
Ned still remembered his travels with the Pokémon - a Ralts and later a Kirlia.
So he had evolved AGAIN? It just wasn't fair. Ned still was this tiny, little, weak bug. He had tried all his life to reach evolution and yet other Pokémon were evolving all around him, leaving the Bug type to wait under trees. Futilely it seemed. Just what exactly did Ned have to do to be graced with the gift of evolution? Were there Pokémon who were naturally incapable of evolving?

Savato carried out 5 launched of one Pecha Forest :

, , , ,

Arietta shrugged subtly to herself as the Gallade explained that he too was here to train himself. Fair enough, she thought. It wasn't as if he were a bad Pokemon anyways, which she was at least thankful for. Before she could say anything else to him however, his attention had turned to something he had noticed in the forest's undergrowth. Blinking, Arie followed the Gallade's gaze to spot a Nincada hiding in the undergrowth. Judging by the exchange that followed she assumed they were at least somewhat friendly with one another and flew down towards 'Ned', landing on 'Akuroma's shoulder so that she had a vantage point to peer down from.

"Pleased to meetcha, Ned and Akuroma," she grinned, glancing at each in turn, "I'm Arietta."

Solilo carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

(18/47 energy)

Akuroma glanced over at the Fletchling as she landed on his shoulder before looking back at the Nincada. "Well I got a dawn stone and evolved into a Gallade." He then straightened back up and smirked, "And what about you? I see you've yet to evolve and become a Ninjask and Shedinja." As he spoke, an Aipom tried to sneak up behind him, its tail hand glowing in preparation to launch a swift attack at the Gallade and Fletchling.

Ned meanwhile was quite uncomfortable with the Flying type staring at him from above, twitching nervously even. At least she hadn't evolved yet and thus wasn't capable of using any Fire type moves...probably.
"Uh...h-hi I g-g-guess.", the Nincada stammered, mentally chiding himself for not being able to regain his composure or to at least fake having any composure in the first place.
But then an interesting smell caught the Bug type's antennae. He couldn't quite identify it yet, but it was obvious that the other two should be notified of it.
"I-I think you might want t-to urn around..."

Savato carried out 3 launched of one Pecha Forest :

, ,

(E=24-11=13)

Arietta blinked at the Nincada's stammering, confused for a moment before she remembered that Nincada was a bug type Pokemon. Ned was probably scared of her since was a flying type and flying types, especially those who were bird-like, were known to eat bug-types.
"Oh, i'm sorry," she frowned, trying to rectify this opinion, "I promise I won't hurt you or anything. I don't even know any flying moves yet."

Before she could contemplate the Nincada's fear of her any further, the bug type spoke again, saying something about turning around. Thinking quickly, Arietta attempted to take off, flying towards the Aipom using Tackle and aiming for it's legs.

Arietta
Energy: 8
11 - 3

Akuroma blinked and turned around, only to have the Aipom swing its tail and send the Swift into his face before it was hit by the Fletchling's Tackle. Akuroma yelped and stumbled backward, rubbing his eyes to clear his vision from the attack to the face. Before he could retaliate, though, a green powder puffed into his face from a pair of Weepinbell hanging from a nearby branch. Akuroma groaned, his eyes becoming heavy until he fell. The Gallade then began snoring softly as the Sleep Powder took effect.

"T-thanks I guess.", the Nincada responded, feeling slightly better at least.
But then the Aipom hit Akuroma and a Weepinbell sent him sleeping.
Now this was bad. Very bad. As the Fletchling had just stated she didn't even know any Flying type moves yet, thus she couldn't be very powerful. And the Nincada was just all too aware of his own weakness. Their best bet would probably be to simply hold the line until Akuroma, the only actually powerful Pokémon around would wake up again.
Maybe Ned could at least try distracting the cause of the sleep.
Charging up a Silver Wind, he then launched it at the Weepinbell, careful not to hit Akuroma by accident as his Psychic typing made him vulnerable to this attack, even though his new Fighting type should mitigate some of the damage.

Though the Aipom had already released it's Swift attack and there was no longer anything she could do to prevent it, Arietta continued her own attack, charging head first into the Aipom with a Tackle. The Nincada seemed to become quite worried that Akuroma had been sent to sleep, but Arie was not nearly as bothered. Sure she wasn't the strongest of pokemon, but she had confidence in herself in that she didn't feel the need to rely on someone else's power to protect herself, no matter how low a level she was.

After her first assault on the Aipom, she turned to attack a second time, not letting up whilst these opponents tried to harm her new friends.