Pokemón : The Price of caution

make, and in a flash of light, a Mudkip materializes in a flash of white light at May's side.

"Alright, a Mudkip!" Birch says with a cheer. "Now, call out one of his attacks!"

"Uhhh..." May draws a blank and looks around unsurely.

Birch sighs and shakes his head. "Just say UseWatergun." "Okay. Use Watergun?" May orders, her tone still uncertain.

The young Mudkip either senses her nervousness or totally misinterprets the order because he opens his mouth, takes a breath, and douses May with a blast of water. The girl can only scream under the torrent of cold water. Birch groans before finally taking notice of Lee and Vulpix with a relieved smile. "Lee! You're just in time! Some help, please?!"

Lee steps forward as Mudkip stops blasting a now shivering May. He glances over to May, who takes one look at his face and freezes. "Hey, stand back. Get into the sun, and you'll dry out faster." He then turns inward as he glances down at the trio of angry Poochyena still circling the tree. 'Ready, love?'

Vulpix looks up at him, her eyes glinting as she settles into a low ready stance.

Lee looks down, focusing intently on several spots just at the feet of the three angry Dark types, eagerness overpowering his tired mind. 'Ember!'

Vulpix leaps into the air, her mouth open, and with hardly any charge time, shoots a barrage of tiny fireballs down at the three Poochyena.

The pups perk their ears and turn just in time for the Embers to impact the ground at their feet, the exploding fireballs throwing all three onto their backs with frightened yelps.

Lee has to fight back a giddy grin.

A number of the Embers flew wide, but quite a few landed in the places he had Vulpix focus on, right at the feet of the Poochyena. He can strategize with Vulpix at the speed of thought. Vulpix's mind pokes at his with an inquiry as she falls back down to the ground lightly.

'You bet your cute ass we're going to abuse the fuck out of this.'

The vixen chuffs, and Lee doesn't even need to feel her mind to know she's amused.

By now, the trio of frightened Poochyena have scrambled back to their paws and look up to Vulpix with equal parts fear and anger flashing in their red eyes. The middle Poochyena growls and looks at the pulverized ground where the Embers had detonated, his hackles slowly falling as he steps backward. Vulpix growls, and all three Poochyena turn tail and run, yelping and howling like hell was on their heels. The three trundle into the bushes and take off out of sight, leaving the forest silent sans the wind through the leaves.

Birch sighs of relief, but freezes when the branch he's on creaks before snapping, sending him to the ground with a painful "Oof!" Lee winces and looks down the short drop-off. "You alright, Professor?"

"I'm fine, just some bruised pride..." The man mutters. "What a day to leave Medicham at the lab. Thank you for the save, Lee!"

"Thank Vulpix, she did all the legwork for me," Lee says lightly before turning to May. "And you must be May Maple, right?"

The girl shrinks on herself as Lee addresses her, poking her pointer fingers together and looking at the ground. "Y-Yeah. That's me."

"Lee is the name, and my lovely friend here is Vulpix," the scarred man introduces himself, then he dryly adds, "Try not to run towards danger next time, please? If something happened to you, then Norman would come down like a ton of bricks on the lab."

May flushes red and nods.

'It's hard to believe she becomes an expert coordinator and a pretty good battler. Eh. Humble origins and all that.' Lee turns to Birch after letting Vulpix hop to his shoulder. "So, what are we doing-!" He's cut off when a massive bolt of lightning cleaves through the sky in the distance with the sky-rocking crackle, rousing countless bird pokemon from the trees with a medley of trills and cries.

Birch and May flinch at the sound. Vulpix folds her ears, but Lee blinks and feels cold sweat slowly break out on his brow.

'The hell was that? Did a Zapdos or something wander into Hoenn?'

Another surge of unearthly electricity shoots up into the sky and lights up the forest, this time with a rumble of ominous thunder that reverberates in Lee's tightening chest. 'That's not Ash's Pikachu, is it? The electricity was red, so...' Lee's eyes widen when he remembers the details of Pokemon Advance's start. 'The red lightning. That is Ash's Pikachu! And we're going towards that?!'

He looks back towards May and Birch, and the professor clears his throat to explain. "Anyway, Lee. I was out here trying to help Ash Ketchum find his Pikachu. The Pikachu in question is suffering from electrical overload and is feverish, so he ran off. One guess where Pikachu is..." Birch trails off, looking at yet another titanic bolt of red lighting that shakes the forest with its thunder. Lee groans. "Great, let's wander right towards an angry and confused Pikachu. This can't end badly."

Birch falls in step beside Lee as he begins running with May trailing a little behind on her bike. "No need to be so pessimistic. I'm sure we can handle Pikachu." Another bolt cracks the sky with a tooth rattling crackboom!

"You mean Vulpix will have to handle Pikachu," Lee huffs, flinching as the lightning only gets louder the closer they get. "If Medicham is at the lab and all you have are the three starters, then Vulpix will have to fight that little monster. I'm not keen on throwing my best friend into the grinder like that."

He can see Vulpix frown from the corner of his eye as she pokes his mind with a trickle of annoyance.

"Is this Pikachu really that strong?" May asks, worry coloring her tone.