Catching a Pokémon

Spoiler

okayhowdoiwriteastory (also known as "The author's pointless note")

And now in all seriousness, I consider myself a horrible writer. I did read some of the tips, both from main threads and other people's stories (is that even allowed? silly me), but I probably did few mistakes in the story anyway.

One of the reasons for that is the fact that English is my secondary language, so I do not possess full knowledge on how it operates.

But that's not the point. The point is for Grader to grade (and bash me if needed, lol) my first [here, overally I think it's the second one... I wrote the first one long ago so I probably didn't improve since then] story. So, without further ado...

Many Trainers likely remember how they started. Some received their first Pokémon from family or Professors, some befriended wild Pokémon, among many other ways. This is a story about how it was like for Maximillian.

Max is a Trainer native to Akara region. Here, one has to pass two tests before he officially becomes a Pokémon Trainer. The first one, which Max has already passed with a decent grade, is a theoretical test. The second one requires you to catch a wild Pokémon, which may or may not become the one you will travel with. If the Trainer has shown to be careful and responsible, he could start his journey as early as on 11th birthday.

Max was preparing to take on the second test, which is due in few hours. He looked at himself in the mirror, ensuring himself that he didn't forgot anything. He saw his black hair, rolling his eyes because it hasn't been cut for a longer time. On the table there was a weekly magazine; it said there was a major happening in a faraway region of Unova. Max took his bag and went outside, ready to take the test. He enjoyed the breeze felt upon leaving home, it was refreshing in such hot day.

***

The second test takes place in special reserve, which is home to many kinds of Pokémon. The better the Trainer performed on first test, the more Pokémon he could chose from to catch. Trainers are send in groups of six, each of them overseen by an experienced Trainer. If a Trainer was observed to be struggling with the capture, the test would be aborted and he would be able to take it again tomorrow.

After few groups of Trainers, it was finally Max's turn. His choice was a Bellsprout, even though he could choose something more elusive and rare, like Pansear. He had chosen that specific Pokémon, because it was something which wouldn't cause larger problems for him.

"The rules are simple. You will receive Poké Balls and a rental Pokémon to catch whatever you chose," the professor Semper spoke. "Each of you will be accompanied by a skilled Trainer, who will oversee you and then report back to us. That's all I have to say. Good luck!"

"The Bellsprout prefer to live in hot and forested places," said the Trainer while they were entering the reserve. "Since today's temperature is quite high, spotting one shouldn't take too much effort once we're in the forest." He was wearing a shirt, a pair of jeans and sunglasses.

The entrance was located at the large plains. Many generic Pokémon lived there; Max could spot something purple in the shaking grass - a running Rattata, the Rat Pokémon. From the plains, each pair went their own ways to whatever habitat their Pokémon lived in.

Max and his accompanying Trainer went towards west, where the trees were gradually becoming more and more plentiful.

***

After half an hour, they finally arrived in the forest. "Now just to catch a Bellsprout," Max muttered to himself.

Travelling through forest was different than travelling through the plains, since one had to avoid getting stuck in a dense bush or being hit by a coming back branch. Other than that, it wasn't too hard—Max actually enjoyed the fresh air. They even spotted a Oddish family hidden among the bushes, hard to distinguish from bushes because of their plantlike appearance.

"We saw Oddish, that's a good sign. Oddish and Bellsprout usually live near each other," the Trainer remarked. Max could see his hair sparkling a little bit from the sweat; the hair was fair in contrast to his darker tone of skin.

"They really do? Is there any reason these two Pokémon are seen in the same areas?" Max asked the Trainer, being bit curious why two seemingly unrelated Pokémon gather in the same areas.

"We're not sure yet. If there's any particular reason, nobody found it. Who knows, maybe it's just a pure coincidence."

"Maybe you're right. Still, I find that a little odd."

As were they walking, they found a small clearing in the forest, where no trees were growing. It appeared to contain no Pokémon, so they just went further, when suddenly...

"Shh! I hear something!" the Trainer silently spoke. He was right, Max heard something rustling in the bushes. After a while, Pokémon revealed itself - it was the Bellsprout, the Pokémon they searched! Bellsprout is among the weirder Pokémon - it looks like a branch with rootlike legs growing on bottom, leaves in the middle serving as arms. On top, it has a rather large bellshaped head with pink mouth attached to one of the ends.

"Sprout!"

"Finally, a Bellsprout! Go, Nidoran!" Maxim said as he opened the Poké Ball to reveal its inhabitant - a Nidoran. Or to be more specific, female of the species. For some reason, male and female of Nidoran kind have been classified as two different Pokémon, a fact that makes even less sense to Max than the one with Oddish and Bellsprout. Female Nidoran appears to be some kind of rodent. It doesn't have any distinct characteristics that would ease its categorization; instead it seems to be a combination of animals such as mouse or porcupine.

"If you didn't know, Bellsprout is a Grass- and Poison-type Pokémon, while your Nidoran is purely Poison-type." the Trainer responsed, giving a tip to Max. "This means you're at slight advantage in this battle."

"Nido! Nidoran!" The blue Pokémon was eager to fight the plantlike Pokémon. It was just waiting for an order to perform.

The Bellsprout didn't waste time and attacked - a pair of vines came out of its body to hit Nidoran. Max commanded Nidoran to dodge and counterattack. The blue Pokémon obeyed, jumping and using her forelegs to kick the Bellsprout from the above, then using the momentum to jump off the Bellsprout. Bellsprout countered the attack by spitting a purple liquid at the Poison Pin Pokémon, but she easily shook off the liquid, as the attack wasn't too effective. It then charged towards the Bellsprout to attack it, leaving a ring of withered grass around where was once Nidoran's body. The Grass-type didn't want to put an easy fight, however, and bended itself so the Nidoran flew just above it; it took the chance to catch her with the vines and throw towards the closest tree.

Nidoran wasn't happy about this, so Max ordered her to bite Bellsprout's head. Bellsprout's response was to slash Nidoran with the razor-sharp leaves, and while it managed to hit Nidoran, it didn't stop her from biting the Bellsprout. The plant Pokémon didn't take it well and tried to shake off her which proved effective - after a while, the Nidoran stopped biting. However, she immediately attacked again by continuously scratching the Bellsprout. Bellsprout decided now to keep distance, and started to throw the same leaves it earlier used in melee at Nidoran, while at the same dodging its attacks. The Nidoran went through barrage of leaves and managed to kick the Bellsprout once again. The Grass-type was growing weaker, with Nidoran having a bit of an upper hand.

Then something happened. The Bellsprout suddenly became faster, leaving a blur of itself where it was seconds ago.

"It's the Bellsprout's Ability, Chlorophyll! It makes Bellsprout faster when exposed to intense sunlight," the Trainer remarked. "When we arrived at the clearing, the sun rays were weakened by the clouds covering the sun, but now that the sky is clear of them..."

"Nidoran, keep distance and attack with Poison Point!" Max responded. Considering the pace with which Bellsprout was moving now, melee fight wouldn't be as easy as it was before.

The blue Pokémon once again obeyed, shooting many purple darts out of her mouth, while at the same avoiding Bellsprout's attacks. Now, it was just matter of the time until one of the Pokémon couldn't fight. The fight became a test to which Pokémon will endure more. Nidoran was attacking with Poison Sting, while the Bellsprout was using Razor Leaf. Each of them keeping a distance towards each other. Each growing weaker with every second. And then, finally... after few more minutes, the Bellsprout had enough. It didn't collapse, but it was clear it had grown very tired.

"Bellsprout..."

"Okay Nidoran, that's enough!" Max said as he recalled the Nidoran back into her Poké Ball. "Now... it's the time. Go, Poké Ball!"

Max has thrown the Poké Ball at the weakend Bellsprout, in hope of catching it... only to overshoot. The Poké Ball landed in bushes.

"My aim seems to be bit off today... Can't let it escape, though!" he said as he took the second Poké Ball from bag. This time, his aim was a little better and...

One...

Two...

Three...

Ding!

"Not bad. Not bad at all for a beginner," said the Trainer as Max was picking up the Poké Ball, now containing a Bellsprout. "Let's go report to Prof. Semper on how you did."
______________
Aiming for: Bellsprout
Difficulty: 5-10k
CC:Around 8699 (likely less, when I was checking the text I found that for some reason there were double spaces instead of single space between some of the words, I probably still missed few of them; either way it should be somewhere close. At least I hope it's close.)

Spoiler

When I already had some story written, I realized this is bit similar to the National Park. I wasn't thinking about basing on it at all!

And, just before beginning the battle, I realized Bellsprout has Chlorophyll. Plot twist that even I didn't predict at first!

Oh, and one more thing... obviously, the catch isn't canon if the Grader doesn't deem story good enough for a Bellsprout.

 

Yay, Bellsprout!

NidoranF has Poison Point, which is useless against Bellsprout (being Poison-type and all), Rivalry, which... well, I could mention that, and Hustle which probably wouldn't have visible impact in animelike battling (increases power decreasing accuracy, but the Pokémon are not static like in anime so it wouldn't be visible unless compared to other Nidoran); plus it's a HA so why would they give something rather rare to a beginning Trainer?

Verbs... if I understand, you want to write me in past tense most of the time, at least for a while? (Verb and their times. how do they work? lol I even brought an English book for proofreading, but this thing seems to not like me either way). Or did I miss anything?

And for as writing, I am not sure when you'll see me in higher ranks.

BECAUSE WHAT IS THIS CONFIDENCE YOU SPEAK OF?