InsaneJournal

Current location:	in a chair
Current mood:	busy
Current music:	Shogo Sakai - Master Pokey's Theme ~ Mother 3
Entry tags:	pokemon, rsescramble

RSE Scramble Challenge 01!
So I decided to take one of the many scramble challenges around SPPf, because it looked cool. Yeah. A scramble challenge is, basically, six other people give you one Pokemon each to form your fighting team with. It can be any Pokemon you're able to catch or legitimately trade for on the cart you're taking the challenge with before beating the game (but they usually rule out Magikarp, Caterpie, and the like; they may be mean at times, but they're not THAT mean), including Pokemon that aren't evolved all the way; if someone gives you a non-final form, you have to keep it non-final all the way to the end.

There are variations on the challenge, where people send you mystery eggs to use whatever hatches as your team, but the one I got is purely in-game captures. I made it into sort of a story again, plus there's art this time. Beautiful, beautiful art! :D


Meet Anti. Let's just say she's a little on the contrary side.

She hates everything others do or try to do for her. Actually, she used to be fairly nice, until she was forced to move to BFE, also known as Littleroot Town. To make matters worse, her mom wants her to go out and become a trainer hardly three days after getting settled into their new home.


WHAT NO.

Despite her protests, Anti only needs to step outside town at the wrong time to find Professor Birch (the guy who tracked Wurmple poop into the house when he visited on the first day) being attacked by a wild Zigzagoon. She isn't sure what Zigzagoon is trying to do to Birch's leg, but he's pointing wildly to his bag, and screaming at her to get this freakin' thing off him, so Anti sighs and rushes over, pulls a random ball out of the bag, and throws it down in front of the Zigzagoon.

A male Treecko pops out, clearly having no idea what's going on. He looks to the left, looks to the right, looks ahead, sees the Zigzagoon getting busy an inch from his face, and jumps roughly a mile into the air.

"WTF AM I SUPPOSED TO DO," Anti yells in the non-abbreviated form, while the Treecko runs in panicked circles.

Birch flails and answers, "JUST GET IT OFF MY LEG ARGARGH."

"Okay JEEZ." Rolling her eyes, Anti commands the Treecko, "Hit it or something!" Treecko stops running around long enough to swing his tail at the Zigzagoon, Pounding it off Birch's leg. Zigzagoon gets mad and Tackles in retaliation, and Treecko kind of freaks out and keeps whapping the raccoon thing with his tail until it stops moving.

Defeated, the Zigzagoon runs away. Anti is totally exasperated and just "WTF," while the strung-out Treecko clings to her lower leg. Relieved, Birch walks over, pries the Treecko loose and stuffs him back in the ball.

"Thanks so much for your help!" Birch says gratefully.

Anti is like, "Whatever I'm gonna go home now and I'm never going outside ever again."

But Birch protests, "Oh, no, no, I can't just leave it at that! Come with me to the lab," and he more or less drags Anti by the collar back to town, kicking and screaming.

Once they're in the lab, Birch admits, "Actually, your mother came to me earlier for advice. She was wondering if there was some way I could get you interested in Pokemon training."

Anti speedily puts two and two together. "YOU SET ME UP!" she accuses Birch, pointing at him dramatically.

"Nono, that Zigzagoon started humping my leg completely by chance!" Birch hastily tries to cover up, holding his hands out in a defensive manner. "I had no idea the pheromones were that strong!"

Anti just goes, "...Ew."

Birch blathers on about how skillfully Anti handled her first Pokemon battle, and how she's her father's daughter and whatnot, and Anti is just thinking, Whatever, whatever, WHATEVER, please to be letting me go home like NOW. The professor concludes by saying that as thanks for the rescue, she gets to keep the Pokemon she just used. Anti stops half-tuning him out for a second to contemplate this: She is now the owner of a Gentle-natured, somewhat twitchy grass lizard. And a very clingy one, at that.

With Birch, her mom, and probably the horny Zigzagoon all working against her, Anti sighs and accepts the gift, somewhat spitefully naming the Treecko Spaz. With that settled, Birch smiles wide and says, "Hey why don't you go see my kid Brendan!"

You mean the kid who broke my freaking bathroom window the day after I moved in? While I was showering? What she says is, "Uh no, actually I was gonna go home and--"

"Glad to hear it!" Birch claps Anti heartily on the shoulder, and proceeds to completely ignore her.

Screw this, Anti thinks, and she goes home to sulk. She ignores her mom's "Welcome home, honey," as she stomps up to her room and slams the door. She flops back on her bed with a long-suffering sigh, and casually throws Spaz's Poke Ball across the room. Spaz pops out and proceeds to freak out over his new surroundings, darting around the floor, up the walls, and across the ceiling. After climbing over nearly everything in the room, he parks himself beside Anti's pillow, staring at her expectantly.

Anti rolls her eyes sideways to look at him. "Don't tell me YOU want me to go run around like a homeless bum too, trying to get myself killed-slash-eaten by some wild Pokemon or something," she says to him.

Since Spaz is a Treecko, he can only answer, "Kyamo."

A knock sounds outside the bedroom door, and Spaz darts under the bed in a flash. Anti can hear her mom's voice through the wood. "Everything okay in there, sweetie?"

Anti just yells back, "YEAH MOM GO AWAY" to get her to leave her alone. This starts a new thought: if she does go off to become a trainer, at least she can get away from her annoying mom and that annoying Birch and this stupid little annoying town for good. Hell, she could probably move in with her dad in Petalburg City; he always was the cooler parent.

So Anti returns Spaz to his ball, slips on her backpack, and jumps out the window. She forgot she was on the second story, but Mom's overgrown rhododendrons take care of that little problem.

Anti leaves the crushed plants lining the house in great haste. She's sure Mom won't miss them. She runs through Route 101, ignoring the Poochyena that frightens Spaz out of his ball (his shriek was rather girlish, Anti recalls), and steps into Oldale Town. As far as she knows, Petalburg is just west of there, and since Route 101 is maybe 20 feet long, her mom would still be able to spot her from the house, so she hurries into Route 102 as fast as she can.

A squealy-voiced sweaty guy pulls her back with a "Please no don't! I must draw these rare Pokemon footprints!"

Yanking off the guy's grabby-hand, Anti shouts, "THEY'RE YOUR FRIGGIN' SHOE PRINTS!" But her shouting has no effect on the nerd. She rages and froths, and is about to kick somebody's house down when she remembers: Birch wanted her to meet his stupid kid. The same stupid kid who broke the bathroom window, and made the BS excuse of "But I was trying to catch a Taillow that was perched outside of it!"

Anti calms down and cracks her knuckles, then heads north; it's revenge time.

At the upper end of Route 103, Anti finds Brendan muttering to himself.


But she doesn't care what it's about, and punches him in the back of the head as hard as she can.


Brendan turns around all like, "OW WTF WAS THAT FOR!"

Anti shakes her clenched fist and yells back, "FOR BREAKIN' MY WINDOW, THAT'S WHAT!"

"I TOLD you, I was aiming for the Taillow!"

"As if you can freakin' find any of 'em in Littleroot. Liar!"

"I'm not a--" Brendan chooses that exact moment to look down slightly and notice the single Poke Ball at Anti's waist. "Hey you got a Pokemon. Let's settle this with a battle!" He unclips his own Poke Ball, holding it out to show that he's also armed. "Since you just became a trainer, I've got the advantage here."

Anti grabs her Poke Ball and sneers. "Your advantage can suck it!"

Brendan sends out his Torchic, and Anti releases Spaz into the fray. She repeats the same strategy as before ("HIT IT HIT IT HIT IT!"), and the two Pokemon beat the holy hell out of each other. Covered in scratches, Spaz finally manages to come out on top, but not without plenty of mental trauma.

After getting his butt handed to him, Brendan returns his Torchic. He looks at Anti's irritated expression, and Spaz's random twitches, and says, "Awww, he likes you!"



Anti is just like, "...What."

"Anti, I bet you could make friends with any Pokemon easily!" Brendan says with a cheesy grin.

"Yeah yeah, spare me the Care Bear countdown," Anti dismisses the comment.

"We should head back to my dad's lab in Littleroot," Brendan says, then takes off head of Anti, who waves her middle finger at his back.

She jogs back to Oldale, determined not to let any cheese-sweating nerds obstruct her again, and passes by the Pokemon Center. She pauses briefly on her warpath, and goes inside to get Spaz healed. The only thing worse than a twitchy Treecko is a bleeding twitchy Treecko, she figures.

After that, she rushes headlong onto Route 102... only to have the nerd pull her back again. Incensed at being touched without her permission, she slugs the nerd in the face, and he falls over, still obstructing her path, because for some reason, Anti cannot step over anything higher than tall grass. She AAARRRGHs some more and gives up, dragging herself back to the Oldale Pokemon Center.

She stays the night there, with Spaz coming out of his ball to curl up on the pillow next to her. The little bugger sure has gotten attached, Anti realizes. She wonders what she'll do with him if worse comes to worst and moving in with Dad isn't an option. Spaz doesn't like to battle, and fighting seems to be what trainerhood is all about. She mulls over the possible solutions as she drifts off to sleep.

The next morning, she finds the nerd still conked out on the path. With 102 blocked and 103 leading to a dead end, she can only go down Route 101 to home. Not anticipating running into her mom, who is likely raging mad at her, she slinks into the lab, where Birch and Brendan are waiting for her.

Despite the head-punching yesterday, Brendan seems quite chipper, and Birch congratulates Anti on her rapid progress as a beginning trainer. Anti still doesn't really know what he's going on about, but she forgets that when Birch gives her a cool gadget.

"Oooooh whatsisdo," she asks, eyes transfixed on the shiny new thing.

Birch says, "It records data on Pokemon y--"

"'Kay don't care bye." Anti leaves, figuring someone has probably rolled the nerd off the path by now.

Halfway to Route 101 and freedom, her mom stops her. OH NUTBALLS, Anti thinks, slowly turning to witness her mother's... warm and smiling face? She's NOT mad?

Mom walks over and squeals. "Oh! Your little Treecko is just too cute!"

When did he get outta his ball again? Anti thinks, her Treecko peeking shyly over her shoulder.

"If you're going on an adventure, you should wear these," Mom says, handing Anti a sweet new pair of Windy Extremespeeds.

"Nice!" Anti had had her eyes on these puppies for a while. She puts them on in seconds, throwing her old shoes into the crushed rhododendrons.

Then Anti thinks about the implications of this gift: Anti's mom really does want her to go away to become a trainer. Far away. By herself.

"Anti, I'm so proud of you," Mom gushes. "If you're ever in any trouble, remember that you can always come home to Littleroot."

This isn't home, Anti thinks, giving her mother a rushed "Yeah bye mom," and runs off in her new shoes. She hopes that getting away from there quickly will banish the horrible twisty feeling in her gut.

***

Finally, the path to Route 102 is clear, but Anti isn't so sure she wants to see her Dad anymore. She's on her own now, with only a twigged-out Treecko at her side. She is kind of starting to feel bad for the little green booger; he's been as much forced out into the world as Anti has. She sees trainers on the way, and wanting to subject Spaz and herself to as little extra pain as possible, she dodges as many as she can.

They arrive in Petalburg relatively unscathed. Despite being a city, there's very little to see, with the main attraction being the gym Anti's dad now runs. Even though Spaz is pretty much okay, she takes him for a healing at the Center anyway. While she waits, a girl trainer next to the counter informs Anti that her Treecko is good against Water and Ground types, but is weak to Fire. Anti processes this as "FIRE BURNS GRASS MWAHAHAHAAAA" and inwardly cringes.

Some dude next to the PC asks Anti for her trainer profile. To make him shut up, she picks out four words for it and leaves.



With less confidence about her plan to move in than yesterday, she enters the gym.

"Hi Dad," she says.

"Anti, hello!" Dad welcomes her warmly. "I heard from your mother that you became a Pokemon trainer. I'm so proud that you're going to be just like me!"

Anti is about to say, "Uh actually, I came here to stay with--"

And that's when Wally enters. Spotting Anti's dad, he approaches and timidly asks for help in getting a Pokemon, so he won't be lonely when he moves away. What with the "Pokemon=fight" logic being drilled into Anti's head by seemingly everyone, catching a Pokemon for companionship and not necessarily battle is new to her.

Dad gives Wally a Zigzagoon to borrow, and sends Anti to look after Wally while he gets his Pokemon. They go to Route 102 and Wally gets jumped by a Ralts. Or, rather, the Ralts kind of shuffles out of hiding and stares at Wally. A couple hits from Zigzagoon and one Poke Ball later, Wally gets the Ralts.

"Omigah this is awesome!" Wally is ecstatic.

"Greeeaat," Anti deadpans.

They return to the gym, Wally gives back Zigzagoon, thanks Dad and Anti profusely, then leaves. Dad tells Anti she should go to Rustboro Gym if she wants to be a strong trainer. Anti doesn't know what she wants to do anymore; she can't go back and live with mom. When Dad mentions that he will battle Anti someday too, she realizes she can't stay with him, either.

Anti leaves the gym and starts thinking of the possible solutions she thought up the night before. She ventures to Route 104, dodging trainers on her way to Petalburg Woods as she busily ponders. Her idea is, since she's stuck being a trainer, the least she can do is find some Pokemon who can handle battle, instead of throwing the unwilling Spaz at everything that crosses their path.

After walking around in the forest a bit, Anti runs into a Shroomish. She sends out Spaz, and tells him to stick it out for just one more fight. Since this is her first capture attempt, Anti imitates what Wally did: have her Pokemon hit it until it looks about ready to be caught, then throw a ball at it. However, the Shroomish is tough and it takes longer to sufficiently weaken than Wally's Ralts did, but once she finds the right time, she tosses a Poke Ball, and it works.

Anti names the female Shroomish Toadstool. Toadstool still has plenty of pep after that fight, and shows her Mild nature by getting concerned over Spaz, who got hit a little harder than the Shroomish did in that fight.

She asks Toadstool, "Are you okay with having to fight a lot? Because, seriously, people don't know how to leave me the Hell alone." Toadstool nods, settling the issue. Anti uses a Potion each on Spaz and Toadstool, and returns Spaz to his ball. He's done pulling battle duty.

They continue through the woods, with Toadstool at Anti's side. The little Shroomish proves her mettle against a Bug Catcher and his quartet of Wurmples, showing that they're no match for her.

Anti is trying to find the exit to this place when she sees some business-type dude up ahead, looking around like a moron. She's about to pass him by when a thug-type dude shows up.

"Hey Devon guy, like, gimme the information or something!" the thug-type person harasses the bussinessman.

"Ohmygodhelp!" Freaking out mightily, Devon guy sees Anti and scurries behind her. "Do something!"

Anti blinks. "Wait what."

Thug stomps up to Anti. "So you're protecting him, huh?! Well I'll show YOU!" In a great show of macho posturing, he throws down a Poke Ball with much more force than necessary, and a Poochyena comes out.

"GOD, you're stupid." Anti sends out Toadstool, who drugs the Poochyena and knocks it into next week.

Now helpless, Thug sputters, "Well, your... YOUR MOM!" He runs off, leaving Anti and the Devon guy.

"Yay, I get to keep my job now!" says Devon guy, dusting himself off and straightening his blazer. "Oh here, have a Great Ball." He practically tosses the reward at Anti before running back to the office.

Anti backtracks to Petalburg and sends Spaz to her mom via PC. She figures it would be best for him there, since life in Littleroot is peaceful, and that way Mom won't be lonely. She calls up her mom, who is surprised to see Spaz in the house, and Anti says he doesn't like to fight, so he can stay with Mom and keep her company. There's an awkward silence, and Anti says "Mom, I'm sorry. I gotta go now." and hangs up.

Knowing that she's going to need more than one team member, Anti heads up to Route 116 and explores the grass there. She sees an Abra, and considering that even one-month-old babies know Abras will Teleport away before you can get a hit in, she throws the Great Ball she just got and catches it in one try. The Abra is male, Quirky, and gets named Somnolent for obvious reasons.

Anti waits for something else to catch her fancy and as soon as she turns around, she sees a Skitty just about to scamper behind a bush. Anti sics Toadstool on the Skitty, paralyzes it with Stun Spore so he can't get away, and throws a Poke Ball. She names the caught male Skitty Chester, who seems none the worse for having just snorted several ounces of Stun Spore and brought under the command of a moody eleven-year-old girl; a Calm sort, this one.

*Team Anti*


Toadstool L.11 (Shroomish F)
-Tackle
-Absorb
-Stun Spore
-Leech Seed

Somnolent L.7 (Abra M)
-Teleport

Chester L.7 (Skitty M)
-Tackle
-Attract
-Tail Whip
-Growl

Next time: the first gym!