[attr="class","header"]WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER

[attr="class","setting"]

‘It was such a nice day to be out.’ Of course, he would probably think that even if it was pouring down raining. Basically, any day where he could go out and wander around was a nice day for him. Having spent so many years unable to even set one foot outside, he took every opportunity he could to spend time outside.
[break][break]
He breathed in the air again before grinning down at Mirage. “This is a nice day, isn’t it?” he murmured softly, lifting one hand off the reins to run his hand through the ghostly Pokémon’s fur. The Zoroark nudged his hand, seeming to be affected by his excitement. Though, of course, he made sure not to feel too excited. He didn’t want to have to deal with his condition again. He had just had a bad episode not too long ago and had only just recovered.
[break][break]
Mirage coming to a halt pulled him out of his thoughts, and he gazed curiously down at the fox Pokémon. From the way the dual type was acting, he could only assume he had heard something. Before he could say anything, Mirage started to move again, making him have to fumble with the reins in surprise.
[break][break]
It took a bit for him to hear what Mirage’s sharper hearing had allowed him to hear. It sounded like someone talking. Though from what he could tell, the person was alone. Pulling on the reins, he brought Mirage to a halt and continued to listen to the person until he could pinpoint where they were at. Oh, they were heading in his direction, so they would end up coming face to face with the person.
[break][break]
Looking down at Mirage, he knew that for whatever reason, he had led him towards the other person. Sometimes, the fox Pokémon would do stuff like that. He was sure it was the dual type's way of trying to get him to make new friends.
[break][break]
The thought of meeting someone new made him a bit nervous, but he took a deep breath to settle his nerves. Now determined, he guided Mirage towards where he had heard the person, and soon enough, he could see the person. Lifting one hand from the reins, he waved his hand in greeting.
[break][break]
The other person was a boy around his own age with hair as dark as his was light. “Out here to catch Pokémon?” he inquired, unsure what else he could say. Why was talking to others so hard?[break] Jarek Brager

[attr="class","oocnotes"] + ooc notes

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Jarek and his Pokémon walked by a large deep stream with rather...weird looking fish jumping out of the water. He's no expert when it came to Pokémon environmental locations, but he's pretty sure Pokémon like that belong in the ocean.

At least the deer don't look so out of place, for he can see a pack racing through the woods opposite from the river. That looked like a happy little race they were-

"WAH!!" And some pale kid just...appeared in his path when he looked back at the road, startling him. For a second he thought he saw a ghost, but...it was some...well...emo-looking kid he guessed? "...uh...y-yeah uh...kinda spooked me there for a second."

But there was a ghost creature beside him; a Pokémon that reminds him of a Zoroark, a Pokémon known in the Unova region. In fact, it may as well be a Zoroark. Maybe a shiny! "Whoa, what's up with your Pokémon there?" Checking it with his Pokédex...

Ohhh...a regional version. He heard about Pokémon like that, but his region doesn't have regional verities. But what's a Hisuian? Another region, maybe? "Cool looking Zoroark. I thought it was a shiny."

Jarek Brager // absalom steel

[attr="class","header"]WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER

[attr="class","setting"]

As he noticed that he had startled the other teen, he couldn’t help but feel bad. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to startle you," he said apologetically. He supposed he should have considered the fact that he hadn't heard him approach. Though he figured that was only because he was riding on top of Mirage, which had caused him to fail to hear him.
[break][break]
He swung off of Mirage, deciding to give the fox Pokémon some rest. That seemed to attract the attention of the other teen, who then proceeded to look up the fox Pokémon. He could tell from his expression that he was still curious. It was also easy to tell that he had no clue about Hisui; his comment only cemented that fact.
[break][break]
"Mirage is from the Hisui region, which was the original name of Sinnoh before it became Sinnoh. Apparently, it was called Hisui when people were first settling upon the land. Mirage came through a space-time distortion when it was still a Zorua. I obtained him when I was ten, though I didn't battle him. He had gotten ganged up on by some wild Pokémon, and my older sister sent them packing while I tended to his injuries. He's been with me ever since," he explained to the other teen, hoping that would be enough to satisfy his curiosity about Mirage.
[break][break]
While he was talking, he didn't notice one of the more curious Deerling approach Mirage before he heard his partner let out a sound of greeting. Curious, he turned towards the sound to see the Deerling in front of Mirage. The Deerling didn't seem like she wanted to attack, just curious about Mirage.
[break][break]
Mirage, for his part, didn't seem to know how to react to the Deerling's attention, making Axel let out a snort of amusement. "Need some help there?" he asked the fox Pokémon as he approached the Deerling, only eying him briefly before returning her attention to Mirage. She sure seemed interested in Mirage.
[break][break]
"Want to join my team? I promise if you do, you'll get to spend more time with Mirage," he said, ignoring the dirty look, or as much of a dirty look as a Pokémon could give. Mirage sent him. To emphasize his point, he held the Pokéball out towards the Deerling, where it seemed to eye the Pokéball for a bit before pushing her nose against the button, causing her to be sucked into the Pokéball. [break] Jarek Brager

[attr="class","oocnotes"] + catch attempt on Deerling

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

So...this Pokémon is from the ancient past that...came here through some...weird...warp thing? Man, where was he when this happened? The major past must hold a lot of amazing and powerful Pokémon he could have in his arsenal. "Man, you sure got lucky!"

Pyre, feeling bored while the two trainers talked, waddled and looked around the environment...until she spotted a large shape hovering out of the woods...something menacing. Scowling, the Charmander slowly approached it...

"...Pyre?" Jarek noticed his Pokémon about to go off on her own. "Where you going? You can't go on you-"

Rushing out of the woods, a metallic creature aimed its metal fist at the fire salamander. But because she sensed its hostile intentions, she was able to dodge the crushing punch.

"What?!" Whatever reason that thing was attacking them (They were standing on some minerals, underground, that emitted magnetic energy it feeds on) it was trying to hurt Pyre, so it's going down! "Pyre, use Smokescreen!"

"Cha!!" Roaring, she spewed a blanket of black smoke on the steel-type…

WHAM!!

…but the Metang punched the fire-type without the smoke blinding it.

“It didn’t work?!” Jarek gawked, but didn’t had time to ponder it as the Metang was going to continue the assault. “Pyre, use Fire Spin!!”

“Cha!!” Spewing flames, she managed to manipulate to wrap around the hovering metal creature, halting it in its tracks while burning it.

“Now Flamethrower!!”

Pyre then pumped up the intensity of the flames into an explosive blast that rammed the Metang out of the twister and into a rock.

“You’re mine!!” Seeing the opportunity, Jarek pitched an empty Pokéball.

Jarek Brager // absalom steel

[attr="class","header"]WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER

[attr="class","setting"]

"I suppose so," he said upon hearing his comment. To be honest, he wasn't really sure what to say about that, mainly because he wasn't a big believer in luck. In his opinion, there was nothing that backed the existence of luck. However, he wasn't about to get into all that.
[break][break]
As the other teens' Pokémon wandered off, he made sure Mirage was still with him before looking in the direction the Charmander had gone. He figured he had noticed a Pokémon, and only a few moments later, he was proven right when a Metang made an appearance.
[break][break]
"Oh, the Iron Claw Pokémon," he said, eying the Pokémon. He had, of course, seen Metang in his father's notes but had never seen one in person. He had to admit, it was more interesting to see it in person than just to read about it in his father's notes. Despite favoring normal types, he still had a curiosity about Pokémon that didn't have a normal typing. However, he just didn't desire to add them to his battle team.
[break][break]
He watched the battle, only choosing to speak up once more when the other teen had gotten the Metang into a Pokéball. "It is said that Metang was formed by two Beldum fusing together. A magnetic nervous system fuses the two Beldum together, but apparently, it doesn't cause an increase in its intellect. Not that it's not intelligent in its own right, it does have a psychic typing after all. But it's nowhere near as smart as its evolved form, Metagross, who is said to be smarter than a supercomputer," he explained before realizing the impromptu lesson he had given. His face heated up.
[break][break]
He really needed to stop doing that. Not everyone wanted to listen to him ramble on about Pokémon he had learned about. "Sorry about that. My dad's a Pokémon professor. He's done research on other Pokémon, and I often read through his notes since I had nothing better to do."[break] Jarek Brager

[attr="class","oocnotes"] + skipping

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Sighing in relief, Jarek picked up the Pokéball and put it away. That was a rather tough Pokémon to fight, and he had no idea how it went through the smoke, but hey, he caught it. So who cares now...unless he has to fight another one from the wilds or from a trainer?

"Uhh...so it gets...dumber the more it evolves? That sounds...backwards." Shouldn't Pokémon get smarter the more it evolves? Why evolve at all if that's not the case? He's pretty sure that Volt doesn't want to evolve, like the Pikachu of some other famed trainer.

Glancing around for any more Pokémon to catch, he spotted one weird and fat squirrel on a tree munching on berries...and some...whatever sitting the shades of the trees, fanning itself and meditating. They didn't catch his interest, and they're just chilling. It be cruel to interfere with that.

Jarek Brager // absalom steel

[attr="class","header"]WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER

[attr="class","setting"]

Hearing his comment, he shook his head. "What? No. Basically, as a Metang, it's as smart as its first evolution, Beldum. It's not dumber. Metagross, its final evolution, is said to be formed by two Metang fusing together, so it has four brains. Unlike its first evolution, its intelligence actually does increase. Like I said, Metagross is known to be smarter than a supercomputer," he explained, a bit rushed to clear up the misunderstanding.
[break][break]
With that out of the way, he looked around. He noticed the two Pokémon right away and eyed them before shaking his head. Both were chilling, and he didn't really want to disrupt that. While it was true he wanted to collect all normal types and he didn't have a Greedent yet, he would rather catch it as a Skwovet and evolve it. Though if he did that, he would probably keep it as a Skwovet for a while. He just found Skwovet so cute.
[break][break]
Realizing he had allowed himself to get lost in thought, he mentally shook himself. "Anyway, we should move on. Pokémon usually don't just come to you like this. It's strange so many Pokémon have shown up with us just standing around," he said, looking a bit puzzled.
[break][break]
He then turned his attention to Jarek, waiting for him to take the lead. While he could definitely do so, he decided to let him take the lead. But this time, he wouldn't be riding Mirage.[break] Jarek Brager

[attr="class","oocnotes"] + skipping

[attr="class","pokeclass"]