Young Writers Society

Jasmine paused walking away, realizing one of her pokemon was still lingering with that group. "Murtle, put him down before I put you back in your pokeball!"

Haunter released the boy rather unceremoniously, him landing with a thump on his recently repants butt. He blushed and scrambled to his feet as she watched Murtle bobble with amusement. She and Nine were waiting by a small candy stand, where the Doctor was being so kind as to get her something. Jasmine adjusted her gloves and kept an eye on the ghost behind her shoulder.

Honestly, between Ariel and Murtle, it was a wonder she got anything done at all. Speaking of the misdreavus, she had wandered off, too.

"Ariel where—" her head whipped around and landed on the group they had just walked away from, which now included a dark blond Frenchman, scarf wrapped around his neck, introducing himself to the girl Murtle had first taken an interest in. Only, now, Ariel was interested in him and about to nuzzle his cheek.

This was going to be good.

He looked to the side and jumped, yelling out a "Sacrebleu!" so loud it made a few people look. Ariel, however, only got closer to him, nuzzling into his chest and refusing to become solid long enough for him to pull her off.

Jasmine sighed, hand going to her forehead. "Excuse me, Nine, but I have to go stop one of my pokemon from becoming part of that boy's world."

The Doctor paused. "Ah, sounds like a fantastic adventure! Shall I hold onto your pokemon?"

"Please!"

Jasmine skipped over to the group she'd just left, hand behind her back to hide a pokeball.

"You again!"

Jasmine smiled at him and looked at the ghost. "Ariel, come over here."

The pokemon shook her head, and if this had been an anime, there would've been hearts floating above her head to accompany the pokemon's string of "mis mis mis mis."

"Ah, erm..."

The blond's blush was intensifying. Jasmine shook her head and pulled out the pokeball, surprised that Ariel was for once oblivious to it coming out. She disappeared in a flash of red light.

"So sorry about that," Jasmine said. "She can be... friendly."

"Eric was just introducing himself!" the girl Murtle had munched on said. "Opening our eyes to the wonders of, uh, mareep."

... Oh.

Jasmine's mouth opened, eyes closed, and her head dropped to her chest if only to close her mouth. "My apologies. She... really likes The Little Mermaid."

Eric coughed and straightened his scarf. "Ah, well, apology accepted. She was quite a charming pokémon."

He was most certainly French. He pronounced the accented E.

Jasmine smiled and waved.

"I'm gonna take you down," the first boy said.

Jasmine turned to wave at him. "Clock hasn't struck midnight yet, m'boy."

"I'm an American! I can't lose!"

Jasmine rolled her eyes. "And the Princess will live happily ever after once she's won... over all the prince's pokemon. Now if you'll excuse me, that carousel still needs to be explored before the last petal falls."

She skipped back over to Nine, who was rather happily handing a shadow-themed lollipop to Murtle.

Oh joy. The last thing that Haunter needed was sugar.

“Ah, your Haunter seemed to be a little tired so I got him this won-fantastic little treat, he seems to have pepped upped qui-”

Jasmine nearly tackled Mal as she ran over and grabbed the lollipop from the ghost, throwing into the nearby river without hesitation. “No sugar, you know that Murtle.” Her voice was so stern it felt like a finger was being wiggled inside Mal’s brain.

“No sugar? What fun is that? Life is full of so many little...things, and depriving...” Oh come on Mal, you did that awesome birth speech, you can do something as simple as this, right? “and depriving a pokemon of sugar, a ghost of energy is like…” Nope, I lost it, gotta think fast, gotta do something extra. Mal glanced at the river the lollipop had landed into, and for some fantastically horrible reason, ran to it.

“I mean, you think a little fun and unexpected behavior, something immensely stupid will be the end of your life?” Oh god, Oh god, Oh god why am I doing this? “Well you’re wrong little lady, it won’t end your life, it’ll only open up more doors and more adventures than you can think to go to next.” Just breathe, nothing bad will happen, you won’t actually do this. “SO just remember, Jasmine, to be fantastic and to dare!” Why am I like this?

"Hey, porcupine," the man with the bowl cut said. "How do you spell Kangaskhan?"

The puffy-haired fellow put his hand to his chin in thought. Bowl Cut wasn't impressed.

"Ignorant, eh?" he exclaimed as he slapped Porcupine across the head before turning to his right, where a pudgy man with a shaved head stood. "How do you spell it?"

"K-A-N-G-A-S-K-H-A-N?" Pudgy offered. Bowl Cut narrowed his eyes.

"Oh, show me up, will ya?" he muttered before bringing a clenched fist down on Pudgy's forehead with an audible popping sound.

"Now listen up, you mugs," he said sternly. "We've got work to do. It's time to wake that kid up."

He pointed at me.

... Wait, at me? I need to wake up? What's going on here? I stopped worrying about all this when I saw Bowl Cut brandishing a large hammer.

"Is that... supposed to wake me up?" I wondered nervously, apparently aloud. Bowl Cut and Porcupine laughed.
"Is this supposed to wake him up?" they asked sarcastically.
"Is it?" Pudgy asked, genuinely confused. Bowl Cut responded with a jab to Pudgy's eyes.

"Shaddahp," he said, and brought the hammer down towards my face.

Art spluttered awake.

Well, that explains that, he thought, but why does my head actually hurt? He looked up and saw a large silver orb floating above his head.

"Oh. Morning, Ohm."
"Bzzzt."

Art rubbed his head. "Thanks a lot. What time is -"
His question was cut short by the beeping of his PokéGear, which started playing the Speedy Shaymin theme song to signify the arrival of midday. Within seconds Art was out of bed and halfway down the stairs. The Magnemite rolled its solitary eye and followed.

"Siiri," Art panted into his PokéGear as he threw on a towel and made a beeline for the shower, "please send a message to Professor Cox and let him know I'm running late for PokéFest."
"Sending message to Cox Mobile. Message. Running late for PokéFest. Sent." the Finnish voice chirped from his watch.
"Thanks, Siiri."
"Message. Thanks Siiri. Sent."
"No, don't - " Art gave up and manually turned off the device.

After about twenty seconds he turned the water off and ran back upstairs to change.
"I can't believe I slept in." he muttered to himself in annoyance. "I feel like that dopey kid from that TV show..."

Within two minutes Art was racing a double-decker towards the nearest bus stop, and he wasn't winning.

"Nonononononononocomeoncomeoncomeon THERE IS NO WAY I AM GOING TO MAKE THIS," he huffed surprisingly loudly.

Then the bus stopped. Art made a mad dash towards the bus stop sign to find Ohm wiggling one of its magnets.

"So you flagged it down!" Art muttered, out of breath, as he climbed onto the bus and slapped his palm against Ohm's still-wiggling magnet. "Good call, buddy."

"Hey, your fangs are showing, vamp," Annie said with a nudge, but Miles couldn't help watching the chocolate bar skip off into the distance with another man.

Of course, Eric easily looked away from the ghost girl and looked back down at her. Then to mareep. "I do apologize if Claude startled you. Your larvitar seems to have caught his eye."

"Oh!" Annie said, her voice going unusually high. "Did you hear that, lolli?" she asked her larvitar, encouraging him to peek from outside his hands paws palms hands. "Claude just wants to say hi."

"...Lar?" He grabbed on tightly to Annie's shirt before leaning slightly forward. The mareep down below bounced wildly at the sight of larvitar's face, which immediately frightened the larvitar right back into Annie's arms.

Annie laughed. "I'm sorry. He's really shy."

"I guess they'll have to see each other more often," he said, a sparkle in his eye.

"Eric Ekans, was it?"

"Who?"

Annie laughed nervously and patted her hipster vampire. "He's only teasing. I think it would be nice for larvitar to have a new friend, though! It will help him open up a bit. Peanut started opening up when this little guy came home!" She and her larvitar nuzzled noses.

"I could just find you an ekans instead."

"Oh, shush. You know I find those creepy," she said with a wave.

"That's my point."

"That comment you made," Miles said with a sip of his coffee--black, of course, "was very racist. I'm shocked and appalled and strangely proud."

Annie giggled. "Sometimes the America comes out! We've only been in London for a few days..." Larvitar had donned a Union Jack around his neck and was parading the other Pokemon around the table. Patrat was trying to show Mareep how to stand on two legs, but it just wasn't working out for the poor...girl? Miles wasn't sure.

Eric sat across from the hipsters in a finished triangle, his right hand outstretched to just barely touch the tips of Annie's fingers. Over the course of coffee, he'd muttered several french sayings that, if Miles remembered French lessons from eleventh grade, were pretty damn dirty. Maybe that was just how the French got it on.

"So you two...you are a married teenage couple from Ameriga, yes? Perhaps got too risky in ze bedroom and called a shotgun wedding?"

Annie burst into tears, wailing. Larvitar leaped to her rescue, nuzzling into her chest. "WHY DOES EVERYONE ASSUME I'M PREGNANT BECAUSE I'M FROM AMERICA-HA-HAAAAAAA?"

Miles had an eyebrow raised. "I'm a gamer and she's head of the Mew's Innocence club at school, dude." He pondered a moment, considering the chances. "There's no chance."

Annie wailed, punching Miles on the shoulder with every word. "YOU SHOULDN'T S-SAY THIS ABOUT YOURSELF YOU'D BE A CATCH FOR ANY WOMA-HA-HAN."

"Annie, what the Muk is wrong with you?"

She gently, slowly--very slowly calmed down, taking a sip of her coffee. With a sniffle, "Decaf makes me emotional."

"Oh, honey..." Miles threw back his head, slammed his phone on the table and yelled:

"WHO GAVE MY PARTNER MOTHERMUKING DECAF?!"

Americans can make scenes.

A barista dashed over with a brewer in-hand and picked up Eric's cup. "I'm so, so sorry, boys." She turned to Miles and winked. "He's a cute one! Don't let this fishie off your hook!" And to Eric, she whispered, "he has a bit of a temper. Let him down easy."

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Mal was a mess, soaked and covered in mud and twigs, an an entire branch of a bush stuck still struck through his jacket, but at this he didn;t care. Nothing he looked like could match how stupid he felt.

“Are you okay? You’re soaked and-”

“Just let me ask you something, please lady.” I probably look like a crazy person, Mal thought, no I am a crazy person.

“Okay, but you should probably-”

“Why am I such a colossal idiot? I mean seriously? I jumped into a river because of stupid trubbish lollipop, I mean what kind of half wit, no brain, complete loser does that for a freakin bit? I could have died! I randomly pass out and I didn’t even think about it, like seriously. And Jasmine! I just left her, like what if she thinks I’m dead? People are probably looking for my sorry ass and for what? A LOLLIPOP! I mean...oh wait this is perfect.” Mal pulled off his jacket and threw it over towards the nearby trashcan. “Thanks a lot lady, you just gave me the best idea! Um, what’s your name?”

“It’s Katheryn, but-”

“You’ve been brilliant Katheryn, really brilliant.”

‘Are you sure you don’t want a doctor?”



Mal wasn’t listening anymore, he was already running off towards the nearest bathroom, digging through the massive pile of junk in his bag, pulling out a simple jacket and tie from the mess, frantically jumping as he slipped them on as he ran through the crowd. Once the tie was loosely in place he kicked his sneakers off, slipping into a pair of trainers he had grabbed off a display on one of the carnival stands, he could still hear the salesman yelling, for some reason he didn't like soggy money.

Once Mal was finished, and had left a decent mess in his wake, Mal stopped in front of the crazy mirrors, taking a moment to admire his work. “If I say so myself I think I look pretty good. Aside from the mud caked hair.” He turned to the lady running the attraction. ‘Excuse me miss, can you tell me what day it is?”

She gave Mal a weird look, but pushed her cigarette into a Torkoal ashtray. “It’s Saturday.”

“Good. Good. I like Saturdays,” Mal reached over the counter and shook the ladies hand. “You look lovely by the way." He let the silence stick for a bit, hoping she might react slightly to him, but she just starred un-amused at Mal. Well, I must be off, I got some people, maybe friends, who think I might be dead to find. Allons-Y.”

Eric
PokéFest, Londres

Eric didn't know why Miles seemed angry, he should have been flattered to be mistake for Eric's boyfriend.

The waitress handed him the newly caffeinated coffee and he switched it with Annie's. She sniffed sadly. Eric raised his eyebrows. "So is a threesome in store now?" he asked playfully.

Miles looked like he was about to blow a gasket.

On the table, Eric's phone began to vibrate. It was Jean-Baptiste. Eric sighed and picked it up. "I'm in the middle of something tres important, Jean-Baptiste. How about you go play in one of the video game tournaments or something? Make new friends."

"I do not want to be friends with the people here. They smell bad. I thought you had gone to get candy floss."

"Yes, the line is very long."

"So what are you doing that's important apart from standing in line?"

Eric drew breath and switched his phone from one ear to the other. "Nothing that concerns you.Au revoir, Jean-Baptiste."

The Americans were staring at him. "Who was that?"

"My little cousin. Maman made me bring him."

"Well, if Maman says..." Miles teased. "So you're a mama's boy, huh? Do whatever your mumsie tells you?"

"She's the most famous Pokébreeder and trainer in all of France. When it comes to Pokémon, only a fool would ignore her." He paused. "Plus, she's my mother. And she makes nice lemon tarts."

They didn't seem to argue with this. "Nice phone, by the way," Annie said.

Eric stroked it like it was his favourite Pokémon. "Global Internet and messaging, video calls, remote access to my account on Gym Challenge and all the other games so I can check my progress, a built in Pokédex-” Claude touched the screen and there was a small electric spark. The phone began to play Mareekira's "Sheep Don't Lie" and Claude bounced up to the Larvitar who was cowering behind Annie.

"And a built in MP3 player that Claude is very good at manipulating. I don't even know why that song is in my library."

The lights! The music! The sheer spectacle!

... the people. Dear Arceus, the people. There should be a law against crowds like this, Art thought.

Despite the over-saturated population of the event, Art had little difficulty locating the head office. No sooner had he pushed open the glass doors than he literally walked straight into the man he'd been looking for. Immediately, Professor Cox's infectious laughter graced his ears.

"Shut the Poké Balls up, it's Arthur Wilson! Hey, I got your messages!"

Cox held out his phone, allowing Art to read what he already knew he'd see:

Arthur Wilson Cell

Running late for PokéFest

Thanks Siiri

"Yes, sir. I hope I haven't inconvenienced you too much with my tardiness?"
"Hey, better late than never. I ain't even mad, bro. Ok, here. This is your PokéFest participant badge, and here's a memory chip. Plug this into your PokéGear and you'll have a map, rules and everything else you could ever need."
"Thank you, sir! Er, when does the cross-country tour begin?"
"Uh... I'm pretty sure you have a few hours? Now, I'm not saying that this event is gonna be the biggest thing ever... BUT IT IS. Now get out there and mingle, kid!"
"What? Can't I -"

But Cox was already herding him back out the door. "Don't worry. This conversation is, as always, to be continued!"
He closed the door and turned back to the room inside. "Ok, people! It's finally time to start that new project you've all been dying to work on! We're gonna call this one... THE FUTURE!"



There should be a law against crowds like this.
I know, you thought that earlier, Art thought back to himself.
Yes, well, it's worth thinking again, Art retorted. Then he realised what he was doing and pulled himself together.

While he was standing around, distracted and arguing with himself, a vague purple fog began to gradually surround him. It wasn't until he was engulfed to the point that other people were beginning to take notice that he returned to reality and discovered he'd been swallowed by a dark cloud.

He swallowed and reached for Ohm's Poké Ball, but before he could even grasp it a hideous visage appeared in the fog in front of his face. Art felt his blood run cold as it shrieked at him. Then, with a demonic giggle, the smoke gathered into the form of a Pokémon...

Art's eyes widened, and his mouth drooped open in an O-shape as the ghost shivered in gleeful anticipation of its victim's terrified outburst...

"AaaaaaaaaAAAAAAHHHH YOUR HAIR IS GORGEOUS"

The Pokémon did a double-take. Art was darting around it now, inspecting it from all angles.

"How did you get your hair that shiny I've never seen a Misdreavus with such shiny hair well I mean I've never seen one in person but in all the pictures I've seen and your pearls are the largest I've ever seen even compared to the pearls they get from Clamperl who is your trainer I must compliment them on the amazing grooming job they've done..."

Art trailed off as Misdreavus glanced over at its owner, a girl that was staring at him like he'd climbed out of the nearby river and proceeded to eat a bug. Her outfit seemed to be tailor-made to match a Pokémon like the one Art had been admiring. But Art wasn't paying any attention to her outfit.

Wait, what's going on? Art had begun another internal discussion.

Well, basically, that's a girl, she owns this Misdreavus, you just made an enormous jackass of yourself right in front of her and now she clearly thinks you're nuttier than a Seedot. That's all.

Art felt his face getting warm. "Uh..."
The girl raised one eyebrow. "... 'Hello'?"
"YES THAT"

Jasmine watched him fall into the Thames and ran along the sea wall till he disappeared from sight. A few people had gathered and somebody was yelling for either the police or somebody with a water type. Not anything Jasmine could help with, and while Roy was good with ghost scents he couldn't track in water.

It seems he wasn't meant to be part of her world.

The authorities seemed to be dealing with it fine, so Jasmine walked off and made sure to stay away from the group and Eric. Once she was a safe enough distance, she released Ariel from her pokeball and let the ghost wander around.

She ended up in one of the main areas of the festival, two ghosts bumping around in the crowd and having other flying pokemon go straight through them.

At least, Murtle was. Ariel had wandered off yet again.

The haunter pointed towards a cloud of smog forming around one boy, in the same grey and pink tones as Misdreavus. She paused to watch, one hand going under her chin. The cloud was forming into a pokemon, and the boy was stepping back, mouth about to drop open for a matching scr—

"AaaaaaaaaAAAAAAHHHH YOUR HAIR IS GORGEOUS."

... What.

Jasmine just blinked, lowering her hand as the boy began bounding around the pokemon, heaping praises and wanting to know the trainer. Arial, after getting her bearings, pointed in Jasmine's general direction.

He stared at her for the longest time, even when Jasmine took a few steps forward. He was blushing.

"Uh..."

"Hello?"

"YES THAT."

On second thought, maybe she'd go back to find those hipsters. They, at least, seemed sane.

"I'm glad you recognized Ariel for the princess she is."

"Step right up! Let your pokemon enjoy the wonders of the pokemon world!"

"Laaaar..."

"I know! How did Peanut get in there?!" Annie cooed as larvitar fumbled with the pokeball.

"How did you convince me to do this?" Miles muttered, looking at the overly childish set-up of the Kanto region. The cars for the ride rocked to and from, loading and unloading visitors. Said cars held plenty of room for both trainer and pokemon, set up with little laser cannons meant for shooting "pokeballs". Fortunately for them, the line was going quickly, and they were almost to the front.

"Welcome to Gotta Catch 'Em All: The Ride!"

Do they really need a walking advertisement for this?" Miles said, looking over his shoulder at the man dressed as Pikachu.

"Laaaaar laar laaar..."

"...Like no one ever was!" Annie sang with larvitar as the music played.

Eric stood rather still, studying the place. "A world of laughter, a world of tears."

Miles eyed him menacingly. "Don't even."

He shrugged. "I think it applies. Everyone here is laughing, but you're about to tear up."

"What? Why even--"

"Pat! Patrat!"

Patrat crawled down from Miles' head and onto his shoulder. He leaned into his ear and whispered. Miles laughed out loud. "You're right, okay." Annie and Eric looked at him strangely. "Don't worry about it," he said, basically to Annie, and looked back at Eric. "How many pokemon can you catch here, then?"

Eric straightened, a slight smile playing on his lips. "How do you mean?"

"This ride goes through all five regions. That's over 600 pokemon. Loser wears that pikachu mascot for an hour. And plays the part."

Annie eyed Miles carefully.

Eric smirked and held out his hand. "Deal."

Annie's free palm hit her forehead. Boys.

Larvitar did the same gesture, wide eyes watching Annie's face. He was entirely too pleased with this game. He hit his forehead a few times more and laughed. "Larvitar!"

"Well, this has been... fun," the girl said awkwardly. "But now I've got to go."
Art blinked. "B-because life is way too short to take it slow?"
"No, I... what? No. I'm trying to find someone, we agreed to battle... or, well, I guess it was more implied that we would battle... anyway, now -"
But she'd lost him. "A battle, you say?"

Art's eyes had lit up again as he turned to the fabulous Misdreavus. "Do you mean to tell me this glorious thing is going to show us her moves? Sweet mother of Mankeys, I have to see this! Who's the poor soul going up against her?"
"Well, she's not - well, I didn't actually catch his name. So the battle might not even happen."
"What'd he look like?"

Art had activated his PokéGear. He turned on Big Screen mode, which presented a large holographic display of the tiny watch screen in front of them.

"You can use that to find him?"
"As long as he's registered with PokéFest, he'll be in here."

The girl thought for a moment. "Well, I think he was American." Art tapped the screen a few times.

749 results found

The girl listed some of the other things she remembered: his knit hat, white shirt, shades and dog tags. Art entered this as well.

749 results found

Art frowned.

"Seemed like a hipster," the girl pondered. "Hey, isn't this some kind of gross invasion of privacy?"
Art nodded absently. "You'd think so, wouldn't you... H-I-P-S-T-E-R." Art spelled as he typed it in.

1 result

The page then listed a profile for a guy named Miles. Art frowned again.
"That seemed oddly specific," he muttered as he glared suspiciously at his watch. The girl, on the other hand, chuckled.

"That's him!" she said. "Can we message his profile?"
"Indeed," Art said. "Siiri, please send a message to this Miles chap asking him to meet... er..."
"Siiri," the girl cut in, "send a message to Mr Miles asking him to meet Jasmine, the lovely young lady with the Haunter and Misdreavus, at the battle tent next to the river at his earliest convenience."
"Sending message to Mister Miles. Message. Please meet Jasmine, the lovely young lady with the Haunter and Misdreavus, at battle tent next to river ASAP. Sent."
"And ask if it's OK to have spectators!" Art exclaimed.
"Message. Spectators O K question mark. Sent."

"Close enough," Art sighed.
"Message. Close enough. Sent."
"Arrrrgh! No! Don't start that again!"
"Message. Aardvark no don't start that again. Sent."
Art seethed silently as he flicked the watch's power switch. He jumped as he noticed Jasmine already on her way towards the tent, and quickly moved after her. "So, erm..."
"You can tag along if you like," she said. "Just promise me you won't jump into the river out of nowhere."
"Uh... sure? By the way, erm... I'm Art."
"Charmed."



"Oh geez," Art said as he slapped his forehead. The two of them were now sitting in the battle tent, waiting for either a reply from Miles or for him to arrive.
"What?"
"I sent those messages from my PokéGear. Now this guy Miles knows my PokéGear ID."
"Is that so bad?"
"No, it's just that... well, I picked a really embarassing ID." Art cringed when he realised what he'd said, and what was obviously about to happen...

"Why? What is it?"
"Don't worry. It's not important."
She nudged him. "Go on! I won't laugh, ok?"
Art sighed. "Well... It's Artibartfast."
"... Artibartfast?"
"I said it wasn't important."

Miles
Little Johto

“HA! RHYHORN! TAKE THAT, CROISSANT ENFENT!"

Miles was pwning this game. In fact, he was so good that he wondered if he could get an in-game achievement for being so freakin' awesome. Clearly, Frenchie had challenged the wrong man to a Pokemon game. Behind him, he could hear excited yelling in French, but it wasn't victory shouting. No, Miles was sure he recognized the song in English.

Let's play a love game, play a love game
Xatu
Do you want love or d'ya want fame
Totodile
Are you in the game
Sentret Sentret Sentret

"TWO CAN PLAY AT THAT GAME, GAGA."

Miles pushed his shades up his nose, furrowing his brow. The Game Was On. "Annie, get your gun."

Kangaskhan

"But the game's between you tw--"

Munchlax
Exotic Pokemon Bonus!

"I swear to Arceus I will make you wear a Pikachu's ass if you don't get your gun."

Annie loaded up her balls and tied her hair into a ponytail to get it out of her eyes. Larvitar reached out and grabbed some dark slime off a

Muk

and smeared it under Annie's eyes. Combat Annie. Aw yeah.

"Lar tar!"

Ten minutes later, they had cleared the Unova region and the train let them off right where they began: Pallet Town. Miles nearly knocked down two officer Jenny's and a Professor Oak on his run to the scoreboard.

HIGH SCORES
Princess Annie: 151
MilesAheadOfU: 140
FemmeSexy: 140
Ralph Wiggum: 139
Gary Oats: 121

"I don't believe it," groaned Miles, "I lost to--"

"A girl?!" Annie beamed.

"No," deadpanned Miles, "an Annie."

Little Femme Sexy was on his phone again, barking at his forlorn companion like a nun with a ruler.

Miles thought for a moment. The image stuck.

Miles' phone hummed in his back pocket. He whipped it out and stared at it inquisitively.

Artibartfast: Please meet Jasmine, the lovely young lady with the Haunter and Misdreavus, at battle tent next to river ASAP.
Artibartfast: Spectators O K question mark.
Artibartfast: Close enough.
Artibartfast: Aardvark no don't start that again.

"Who's it from?" asked Annie.

"I think it's a spambot. Y'know, one of those Nigerian Princes who wants to sell you car insurance for insanely affordable rates."

Annie giggled. "Oh boy. My daddy bought into that once," she said, "their car insurance is not very practical for today's society."

"At any rate, I'd like to go to the battle tent and see if that little lolitari girl really is ready to battle. I promised I'd take her down." And possibly on a date, he thought. "Juice, old chum, please light the way."

Patrat beamed as he climbed onto Miles' hat and struck up to attention, hand to his forehead in a salute, and flashed headlights out of his eyes. The crowd parted, and Miles strutted his threesome down the pavillion.

Art seemed mildly puzzled that she was heading to the digital arena instead of the physical one. "So, uh, what Pokemon are you going to use?"

Jasmine pulled out her console, flicking through her team. She looked up at the rules, then back at the screen. They only allowed three instead of the usual four.

"I'll get back to you on that."

"Y-you mean, it won't be Misdreavus?"

"Nope." She shrugged, stuffing her console back in her dress pocket. "Besides. He has a Patrat. If I was going to use any Pokemon against him, it'd be Roy."

Art stared at her, slowly lowering his eyes to the ground. "Maybe I'll reconsider being your guest."

"No putting my service to the test?"

Jasmine winked as he blushed again, which made the colour turn even redder. "I- I mean, I wouldn't leave I just... um..."

She rolled her eyes which got them looking up, to the suspiciously purple-tinted blotch above Art's head. Time to see how he handled Murtle.

As if it was a reply to that question, she licked him from lower back to the top of his head.

Colour drained from his face with a yelp and he turned around to be face to face with a madly grinning Murtle. He was about to lift his hands to his face when the paralysis kicked in, leaving him frozen midway to fangirling. Well, fanboying.

He still managed to get out, "Its lick sure is effective!"

He's worse than Ariel with a dinglehopper.

Speaking of the Misdreavus, she took full advantage of Haunter spit in Art's hair and started to pull and ruffle it when her targeted victim couldn't move. By the time lick had worn off, he looked like he'd walked straight out of anime from the sheer number of spikes.

Apparently, Haunter spit made fantastic hair gel.

Two beams of light landed on the side of Jasmine's face, causing her to turn around and be blinded by what appeared to be a Patrat's eye beams. She brought a hand up to shield her face, only to see exactly who she was looking for.

A smile crept up on the girl's face as they arrived. Miles' posture improved tenfold at their arrival, watching her saunter right over to us. The blushing boy behind her cautiously followed, his eyes avoiding Annie.

"We've never properly introduced ourselves," Jasmine said, her enchanting voice penetrating Miles' hipster barrier. She offered her small hand. "I'm Jasmine."

His cheeks turned the slightest shade of pink when he shook her seemingly-fragile hand. "Miles. I was afraid you were backing out on me."

"Never."

Miles couldn't seem to speak further, and Jasmine took that quite as natural while acknowledging Eric's presence (with a random sparkle in her eye) and Annie's. Her brow furrowed slightly, and she tilted her head. "You look a bit flush, dear."

"I'm sorry?" Annie said, taken aback by the remark. Of course, she instantly felt ashamed of her accent next to Jasmine's.

"Ah, I apologize. You must be pregnant."

"I am not!" Her face was instantly hot. Miles buckled down with laughter, and Annie shoved him. "That's not funny, Miles!" It didn't help that Jasmine was amused by Miles' amusement. Annie huffed.

"...Lar?"

Annie hugged her larvitar as a poor attempt to show everything's fine.

"By the way, this is Art," Jasmine said with a wave. "He helped set this up."

She tossed a grateful smile in his direction, and Art blushed, shrugging it off. "It was nothing."

"Well, hello again, Ariel," Eric said as the misdreavus appeared flying around him.

"I suppose the match will be held inside, then?" Jasmine said. She seemed to be the only one here who had any clue what to do next. "I would hate to drag out your potential defeat for too long."

Miles suddenly woke up from his daze with a shake of his head and said, "Awww no! It's your defeat being dragged out!"

"Ooh, burn," Annie muttered.

"A shame to see this go downhill for him before it starts," Eric said to her. Annie laughed lightly.

"No more wasting time," Miles said. He unzipped his backpack and retrieved a sleek black DS. Without a word, he pointed at the vacant battle terminal at the head of the tent: a giant holographic battlefield to display their fighting pokemon, and more importantly, Miles' victory.

"What's wrong, afraid of getting your little rat gobbled up?" Jasmine winked as a Haunter hovered down beside her, mouth gaping wide and shaped into a hundred pointy, gassy teeth.

"I don't believe in using Pokemon as tools of war. Bits of data, on the other hand, are nothing like living creatures." Miles had his game face on, and there wasn't a thing in his vision but her burning eyes. "You can have the beauty and brains," muttered Miles, "but you'd best believe that I'll bring the brawn."

__ __ __

The two stood across from one another, each on a platform with their DSes docked in the console control before them. Miles took Patrat and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead before turning to his friends. "Eric," he said, "hold onto Juice for me. He gets scared of these things."

"Your companion is safe with me, mon amie."

Jasmine was already typing away at her console, logging into her account and boasting her victory stats in the 3D field.

Princess Jasmine
663-2

Miles entered his information and selected three Pokemon from his lineup. "You may know my name," he shouted over the console, "but you don't know my title!"

Champion Miles
3099 - 0

Jasmine was clearly shaken. Titles were awarded for feats of strength in the pokemon gaming world, and the title champion was a national treasure. She turned over her shoulder to her techie friend. "He can't be a champion. There are less than forty in the world!"

The kid flicked at his watch, bringing up a Tootle search page. "American Champion, Miles MacFarlane...2010 to present." The two turned to look at Annie, who, along with Larvitar and Patrat, nodded proudly.

Miles remained stone-faced as he turned on the hologram on his end, digitizing the image of a bipedal, saffron cat with narrow eyes. The console AI commented.

Alakazam, the Psi Pokemon. Power level: 490.

Jasmine released her first pokemon as a wave of heat spread over the field.

Ninetales, the Fox Pokemon. Power level: 505

"Ninetales!" shouted Jasmine, "Fire Blast!"

Hardly a sound. "Protect."

Torrents of flame spewed from the shimmering tails of the golden fox, gnarling into a single corkscrew that crashed down around Alakazam. The assault went on for seconds, but Jasmine caught the problem. "He's not wavering...not even an inch."

The fire dissipated and vanished, revealing the clever psychic beneath a protective blue barrier. Miles grinned and pressed the vocal command. "Alakazam, Hyper Beam!"