Chapter Nine: Petal Dance Patrick was determined to catch up to his friends. "Parasect, go! Spore attack, now!" he shouted. Parasect- the evolved form of Paras- appeared, and sprayed it's powerful sleep inducing spores over two unsuspecting bugs. "Caterpie, Weedle- you're mine!" Patrick caught the two of them at once! "Way to go!" Allison congradulated. "Me and Uiru can tell you all about Caterpie and Weedle." "Remember when those were the only Pokémon you had, and you were at each other's throats with them?" Matt asked. "Watching you two crab at each other was hilarious." "Oh be quiet," Uiru replied. "It was a bit silly though," Allison said. "I'm glad we grew up." Uiru nodded. "You've known each other that long?" Patrick asked. "Well... To be honest, it wasn't THAT long ago," Uiru stated. "We've only been at this for, like, three weeks," Allison replied. "Three weeks?!" Nick, Alex, Patrick and Jessica shouted. "We've been at it for years!" Matt laughed. "Keep it down. You're scaring away all the Pokémon. Call it natural talent, but Uiru and Allison only caught their first Pokémon- Caterpie, and Weedle- about three weeks ago." "My natural talent tells me that there's something over there that should interest a Grass trainer," Uiru declared, and pointed. Jessica gasped. "Oh, it's so CUTE! It's an Oddish! They're really rare!" "It's a Grass type- that's all that matters! Paras, go!" Matt decided to use Patrick's tactic. "Spore, now!" This Oddish had a little surprise in store for Paras, however. Turning from it's drink at a small pool, it leapt high into the air! Oddish came down on top of Paras, dodging the Spore cloud. "This must be it's Petal Dance attack!" Jessica stated. "I've heard of this. Oddish is the only Pokémon that can use it, too!" "What does it do?" Matt asked. "Oddish will strike with increasingly powerful attacks, until it gets very dizzy," Jessica answered. Paras clawed at Oddish, who dodged the swipe and returned with a terrific kick that sent Paras back to Matt. "Return! Bulbasaur, go! Tackle!" Bulbasaur charged at Oddish. Oddish charged at Bulbasaur. To the surprise of everyone, Bulbasaur went flying! "That little Oddish it bitchin'," Alex stated. "Bulbasaur, Stun Spore!" Matt shouted. Bulbasaur hit Oddish with the paralyzing cloud, which would slow it down considerably. "Okay, Bulbasaur, return! Exeggcute, go! Hypnosis!" Since it was Paralyzed, Oddish couldn't move quick enough to get out of Exeggcute's range. It started to feel sleepy! "All right! Now it's time! Poké Ball, go!" Matt caught Oddish! "Great!" Uiru shouted. "Good thing I caught you that Exeggcute, eh?" For the next little while, the seven battled their Pokémon against the wild monsters on Charteruse Peaks. Allison was quite happy when her Mankey evolved into the much more formidable Primeape, and Jessica's Gastly evolved into the eternally cool Haunter. After a while, they came to a small clearing. "You know what this place would be perfect for?" Jessica asked. "Machop, I choose you!" "Oh, I get it," Uiru grinned. "Abra, I choose you!" Matt got Alex's attention. "This is really quite interesting. That Abra fights just as well as that Machop does." "Really? I thought Abras just Teleported away from things." Apparently, Abra heard what Alex said, because it snapped it's head around to look at him with the same fearless glare it seemed to have permanently etched on it's face. This time, however, there was a strange curiousness to it's look. Abra seemed to be thinking of something. "All right, Abra! Double Kick!" "Machop, Counter!" They sat back to watch the show. It was business as usual for a while, until Abra decided to change tactics. It flew at Machop with a Jump Kick, but then vanished, and reappeared behind the bracing Machop to blast it from behind! "Wow! Did you see that?" Uiru asked. "That's a cheap move," Jessica replied. "But it has great potential. Abra's got a powerful new attack," Matt said to her. Abra didn't have a new move- it had a new fighting style. It seemed like Abra fully intended to make the Teleport integral to it's fighting style, and Machop wasn't too thrilled about it. Every time Machop attacked with a chop or a kick, Abra would warp just to the left or right and counter. "All right, that's enough! Machop, return!" Jessica tried to call Machop back, but it wouldn't listen. "Why do you want to keep fighting?" she asked. "Maybe it wants to find a way through Abra's Teleport offencive," Uiru suggested. "Or maybe it's just stubborn." Whether it was one or the other, it didn't matter because Machop soon started landing hits on Abra, despite the Psychic Pokémon's attempts to Teleport out of the way. It's speed was increasing at an alarming rate. "Machop must be learning Agility," Matt announced. "It's becoming so fast, Abra's Teleporting can't keep up! It's fitting that, since Abra is learning Fighting attacks, Machop should learn Psychic abilities." With a super chop, Machop sent Abra flying. "Wow! Machop beat Abra!" Jessica cheered. "They both have great new attacks," Uiru stated. The two tired Pokémon went back to their Poké Balls. "Is there anything else up on this mountain?" Alex asked. "Besides the old abandoned mansion, no," Allison answered. "Old abandoned mansion?" Nick asked. "Where is it?" Patrick asked. "You have to tell us!" Matt declared. "It's right this way," she answered. They started walking down the path. "It's about, say, 40 minutes from here." "40 minutes?" Alex complained. "Oh well, I'll start training my bugs," Patrick decided. A Venonat bounced into view. "Caterpie, Weedle, go!" An hour later, they made it to the mansion. It was getting dark. "You know, guys, we might have to stay here tonight," Jessica warned. "We can't go back now," Allison said. "People who go into that forest at night may never come out." "Well, let's head in," Uiru decided. "Nobody lives here, right?" "Right." "Good." He pushed open the door. "Yo, it's pretty dark in here. I wonder if there's a phone?" "Why would you want a phone?" Jessica asked. "To tell Booster we won't be back tonight," he answered. "Booster will survive one night without us," Jessica said. "Now stop worrying and look around!" Matt called out to Uiru. "Hey Uiru, there's a bunch of old Pokémon research texts up here!" He pulled out a book he thought would interest him- 'Grass Pokémon: Harnessing the Power of Nature'. Uiru looked over the books. "Here's one," he said. "'Water Pokémon: Mastering the Rage of the Ocean'. I wonder if it has any info on my Squirtle?" "Look up Staryu," Jessica asked. "Here it is," he announced. He read her the description. "Doesn't say when it evolves, does it?" "I'm getting to that." Apparently, Staryu evolved with something called a 'Water Stone'. "Hey Matt, what's a Water Stone?" "A Stone to evolve certain Pokémon that can't evolve themselves," he answered. "Don't ask me where to get them, though. I don't have a clue." Jessica pulled out a few books. "Let's go sit down," she suggested. "No sence standing up here all night." Uiru pulled out a few and followed her. The bookshelves were on the mezzanine of a large living room. The two went down the stairs and sat down. "I wonder if there's any food here?" Jessica asked after a little while. "Who knows?" Uiru replied. "Hey, cool- it says here Squirtle is one of the only Pokémon that learns Withdraw." "What does that do?" "It increases it's Defence, like Harden," Uiru replied. "Staryu learns Harden though. As well as Minimize, Light Screen, Recover... When your Staryu gets it's levels up, it'll be hard to beat." "Cool! I wonder if it knows any of those attacks now?" Meanwhile, in the basement... "What's all this junk doing here?" Alex asked. "Maybe this place was a lab at one point," Allison suggested. Nick thought he recognized something in the wreckage. He pushed some junk over. "Hey, check it out! A trading unit!" "Does it work?" Patrick asked. "No, but I might be able to fix it," he said. He pulled it out of the pile of broken metal. "This is a modern trading unit. It probably hasn't been here as long as some of this other junk has." "Here's something that's been here a while," Alex pointed. "This phone doesn't even have a video monitor on it." "Does it work?" Alliosn asked. Alex picked it up. "Dial tone," he announced. "I'll call Booster." He punched in the Pokémon Center's number. "Hey, is Booster there?" he asked. "One moment," the nurse replied. In a second, Booster was on the phone. "Hey, where are you? Why isn't there any video?" Booster asked. "I'm on an aincent phone," Alex replied. "Listen, we're all gonna spend the night at this big old mansion up on the hill, okay? It's too dark to come back now." "Yeah, I guess that'll be okay," Booster agreed. "Who's up there?" "Me, Allison, Nick, Patrick, Uiru, Matt and Jessica," he listed off. "We've been catching and evolving our Pokémon all day!" "Great!" Booster declared. "The HQ won't be needing us for a while, so you can take your time if you want. Have fun!" "Well, that's that," Alex said. "I'm gonna work on this upstairs," Nick declared. "The light's better up there." He dragged the thing up into the living room. Alex, Allison and Patrick wound up in the kitchen. "Could there be food here?" Alex asked. Patrick opened the cupboards. "Cans," he announced. "Dozens and dozens of cans." "This kitchen is a mess," Allison declared. "I'd clean it up if we were gonna be staying here for a while." "And there's no fridge," Alex complained. "Hey Nick, do you think you could build us a fridge?" "Sure, I happen to have all the parts on me, I'll have one for you in an hour," was the sarcastic reply. "Just asking," he replied. He went out into the living room. "Is there a broken microwave down there? We could use one." "I didn't see one," Nick replied. "Why? Is there food here?" "Cans of something," Alex replied. "Isn't there an oven?" "Yeah, but it won't work." "Did you check if it was plugged in?" "Why wouldn't it be?" "Maybe the last people here unplugged it so it wouldn't start a fire or something," Nick replied. He got up. "I'll take a look."