I snorted mentally as Leo hopped off, saying he wasn't tired, then fell flat on his face. <Well, the rest of us-- most of us anyway-- ran or flew here...>

Walking close, I crouched and extended a claw, offering him a hand up, while turning to look at Axel, now shifting to his Mightyena form. <I'll try to slow down.>

Leo gave himself a minute lying there. How embarassing... Suddenly, a shadow of a powerful monster towered over him. Leo gulped. He looked up, slowly... Huh? A Garchomp was offering him help up? It looked sorta funny. Apart from almost killing one of them, the fact that Cassie was mastering this form so well, and a dragon pokemon no less, was amazing. Leo leaned up, taking the back of her claw and pulling himself up. He made sure the feeling in his legs came back before letting her go, tapping the ground with his foot. He looked up at Cassie, somewhat nervously, "Um, thanks..." he stared at her, wondering what her secret was. It almost turned into a full on glare.

<You're welcome.>

I stretched my forelimbs idly, then realized Leo was staring intently at me. Tilting my head in his direction, I regarded him with a dark dragon eye.

<Yes?>

As soon as Leo heard the "yes?" he averted his eyes and looked into a different direction, blushing a little, "Uh, nothing."

He looked down, sighing heavily, "Well... I was wondering why you were able to control your pokemorphs so well. But now I think I understand," Leo put his hands into his jacket pockets, "You've lived and cared for pokemon before --- haven't you?" You'd have to have some knowledge of Garchomp or another aggressive dragon type in order to control its primary instincts this well while maintaining her own, he thought. He wondered how much she really knew about pokemon... He could've been wrong, but maybe she was like him? Maybe she was one of the orphans of his village...? "...Anyway, I'm sorry. I hardly know anything about you... I don't expect you to tell me about your previous life," he looked back to Cassie and her landshark form, looking away again, "I envy you, I really do. You're more or less the strongest morpher here. However, if you slip up even once, or your instincts overtake you and you go into an Outrage... it could be all over. Remember that."

Leo turned, walking behind Axel the Mightyena. He glared. All he needed was that kind of power he could control, and Elemental wouldn't stand a chance... or perhaps he was just being childish.

((Does anyone else except me find it ironic that in the Animorphs canon, the character likewise named Cassie was -also- one of the stronger morphers of the group?))

<My parents were breeders, I grew up with an Absol and an Arcanine, helped run the center and care for the babies. Father was from Hoenn, mother from Kanto. Elemental confiscated our Pokemon, burned the center we ran.>

As he warned me, I let out a slight growl of amusement, the tone lazy and grumbling, not aggressive at all. <I handled my father's Salamence, Brego, when I was younger. I know what the triggers are, and how to avoid them. You needn't worry about me. The more time I spend in this form, the better my control.>

I looked around the circle, from face to face. <The Charizard mind seems to be a 'skin', a natural form if you will, I suspect your first forms are the same for you. The Garchomp fought me at first-- she was a proud, strong creature in life-- but we've come to an agreement. She's happy to work with me now.>

As Axel, Leo, and Seth flew in, I saw that the group was all together again.  Pikachu Leo, cocky as always, fell on his face trying to get off of Axel's back, right after commenting on how easy it was.  I couldn't hold in a laugh, which came out as, "Bee bee bee!"

I demorphed, a little bit tired after using my energy to teleport all that way.  Although, the others all seemed a whole lot more tired than I was, save Leo, who just needed to get his legs used to the ground again.  Axel, after becoming human again, immediately morphed into Mighteyena.  He then advised us to stay together.  "Yeah," I agreed.  "We can't take chances like that, especially considering how close we are to the city."

Cat helped Leo up, and they began to talk about Cat's past life... No that makes it sound as if she died... The life she used to live?  Yeah, that sounds better.  Anyway, she talked about how she grew up at her parent's breeding center and had a natural talent for handling Pokemon.  She even worked with a Salamence!  I guess that's how she got her apparent love of dragon Pokemon.  Man, my life sounds boring compared to hers.  While I was studying dead Pokemon, she was out learning about live ones!  Sure, I might know the statistics and such, but that's no substitute for first-hand experience.  But we weren't that dissimilar.  We both grew up learning about Pokemon from our parent's professions, just to have it all burned down by Elemental.  I know how she must have felt.

Getting back to reality, I started my transformation into Kabutops, since I was more skilled in handling it than Beeheeyem.  Cat was right, it did seem like a sort of "skin" to me, besides the occasional impulses to go swimming.  <Alright, guys.  I'm ready to head out when you are.>

Leo smiled to himself smugly. Cassie was a little bit like him, cocky. It irritated him a little bit. He found himself wishing she'd lose control just ONCE so he could tell her I told you so. He immediately re-thought that and decided that wasn't something very smart to wish.

He was right about one thing; she wasn't exactly a novice when it came to pokemon. She had the experience Leo had as well, something that made them unique from the others. Still, she couldn't have known EVERYTHING he did... but maybe she knew stuff he didn't...? He found himself pouting. Maybe he was jealous of her or something. No way, impossible.

The first morph is kinda like a skin, huh...? Leo thought on Cassie's words. He considered the facts. Axel's first morph was Mightyena. That pokemon, which is a dark type, isn't usually a pokemon that saves a Pikachu, one of its prey no less, from a blazing battlefield... Axel was more or less in complete synchronisation with that pokemorph, just because it was so natural to him. Perhaps Cassie was right... Leo felt a tiny bit angry that he didn't think of it first.

"Hmph!" Leo crossed his arms, turning grumpy. If only he turned into a scary powerful legendary or something for his first pokemorph... life was so cruel.

Leo decided to transform into his Bulbasaur morph. He was Pikachu for awhile already, so he didn't want to leave his other prized pokemorph out. Pikachu and Bulbasaur... They needed nicknames. Not just because trainers used to nickname their pokemon in the day, but because it was a really, really awesome idea. When he'd morph into a different pokemon, he could just cry out his nickname for that pokemon and totally kick ass afterward. However, the group ALWAYS had to refer to him as the nickname of the pokemorph at the time, Leo thought... Leo agreed. The idea was genius. Now, for nicknames... Thundergod, MegaSpark, Helljolt, ZapZapYou'reDead, for Pikachu... Bulbasaur... BulbasaurusREX, AwesomeSaur, Whiplash, SeedBomb... No, no, no, those names were stupid...

The small Bulbasaur thought and pondered to himself, walking behind the Mightyena and the others.

((I vote for BulbasaurusREX Oh, and if you guys know where we're going, then please feel free to push the group along. There are points where I won't have time to use the computer, and I don't want this to die just because of me; so, by all means. I may send PMs out to a couple of people who I've already talked about the plot somewhat with. We'll see.))

Panting mildly, I began to trot into the forest, the rest of the group following behind me. They were discussing the various aspects of each PokeMorph, and how the order they were received in affected each one. What Cat said made sense; the Mightyena morph definitely was more "me" than Pidgeotto. At least in the sense that it was mostly my own personality in there, and not that of the Pokemon...

Did it have something to do with how we acquired the morphs? I mean, the second ones had been acquired via communicating with our guardians; the first ones had been given to us. Bill had described a third method, in which we just touch a Pokemon we want to acquire. Would that wind up being more like the initial morph, or the guardian morph? It was an interesting and important question, so I decided to mention it.

<So, guys, remember how Bill said that we could also touch any Pokemon that we wanted to acquire? Do you think such a morph would be more like our first morphs, or our 'guardian' morphs?> For conversation's sake, I guess. We were really just heading in a straight line through the forest at a pace everyone could keep up with. Nothing that required too much attention -

Off to our right, I sensed a rustling of bushes. I instantly paused, my hackles raised. More rustling. Deep in my throat, a growl started. If it was Elemental, I was going to aim for their throats; if not, I'd probably have to do some serious restraining.

But as it turned out, I didn't have to do either. All of a sudden, I heard, "Uh, are those Pokemon talking?!" A young girl stepped out from the bushes. Brown hair and eyes; she looked to be about Leo's age, maybe slightly older. Fair skin, and clothes that weren't ripped. I mentally sighed. We had probably been broadcasting our thoughts; a couple of us were still in human form. Had we come all this way, just to get busted by some little girl from Viridian?

"Uh, I think I heard some of you guys talking. But that can't be right.. but none of you should be traveling together - Mightyena and Garchomp are predators that would probably kill a Bulbasaur." She sighed and shook her head, then sank to her knees. "I shouldn't have run away from Mama and Papa; now I've been lost here in these woods for two days, and those mushrooms I ate earlier are making me hallucinate." Tears sprang to her eyes. "This is the last time that Katya will disagree with her parents, I swear!" She seemed to be imploring some god or heaven for help.

I looked back at the others, then made sure to broadcast only to them. <What the hell do we do? She's an innocent; we can't kill her or just leave her here...> I was really lost on this one.

((Katya will be part of an upcoming plot twist, and someone needs to make sure she comes with us, preferably with knowledge of our abilities. But don't offer her the ability to morph.))

((I can help if you want me to. *Shrugs*))

<Guardian, I'm guessing...> When the bushes rustled, I growled, crouching and raising my claws, ready to battle--

-- then blinked when the girl walked out of the bushes, rambling to herself and looking us over.

<We'll have to take her with us. Maybe get her back to her parents, it can't hurt to get some positive press. Can one of the psychics-- Seth or Jay-- put up a barrier around her so she can't run away?>

I let out a little "Gar." to catch the girl's attention, then began my demorph, concentrating on making it look graceful and at least somewhat appealing, slowing the internal changes to avoid making all manner of cracking and squishing noises as my bones and organs reorganized themselves.

Finally human again-- I frowned, not liking the dull-by-comparison human senses, but trusting my team members to cover me, and knowing my fire dragon shape was not far away, I walked closer to the girl, staying loose in case she tried to run.

"No you're not hallucinating. I'm Cat, these are Axel, Steel, Jay, Seth, Leo, and Vincent." I gestured at each of them as I named them. "To cut a -very- long story short, we can turn into Pokemon, and we're on our way to tip over the government."

((Shouldn't the girl faint or something upon seeing us demorph? I'll leave that up to rex lol. I only know that we're getting ambushed shortly in this forest, but other than that I haven't a clue. You'll have to fill me in lol.))

Leo remained silent about Bill's method of obtaining a new pokemorph. Part of the reason he wanted to go back to Ilex Forest was for exactly that purpose... He kinda figured getting in touch with a pokemon that was still alive and in this world would've been easier than using the Silph Scope. Mentally, that is. In this day and age, finding ANY pokemon that wasn't poisoned by Elemental was pretty hard to come by. However, if the villages still existed...

The Bulbasaur looked faintly at the young girl. It was depressing to see another girl who was taller than him... Then suddenly something hit him, and it was from what the girl said.

"Uh, I think I heard some of you guys talking."

That alone rose some questions, along with her knowledge of pokemon... Wait, hold on... Was she from another hidden village?! Impossible!!

Leo quickly demorphed from Bulbasaur into the short red-headed Leo before her. He paced over to her, grabbing both her shoulders to demand her his answers, "You said you heard us, right?! But how can that be?! We weren't talking aloud, you shouldn't have been able to hear us! And what of your parents? Where did you come from?! Tell meeee!!" he shook her.

((Not exactly. She's still young, so she's not as closed off to "impossible" stuff happening as we are. And we're not going to get ambushed; I'm just setting some stuff up.... ))

Katya's eyes widened as Cat began to demorph. "What.. how.. what, wait, uh, holy crap!" She began stuttering, and couldn't even pull herself together enough to answer Leo's questions. I mentally put my palm to my forehead; the girl needed to get her thoughts together, and soon.

I demorphed quickly as well. "As Cat said, I'm Axel. Listen, we're kind of in the middle of traveling through the Viridian Forest to get somewhere we need to be. We also have some really bad people chasing us, so we can't just leave you here." I shuffled from foot to foot, then quickly added, "So in exchange for you not giving us up, we'll guide you out of the forest. Deal?" I didn't think it possible, but she actually shut up as her eyes got even wider.

"You... you would help me?" She shook her head in disbelief. "Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou! I promise, I won't say anything to anyone, not even my Mama and Papa, and not my baby Purrloin, or anybody! I swear!" Oh, lord, the freaking hysteria better stop soon, or I might reconsider killing her.... Her ease with accepting our ability was rather odd, I thought. Maybe her age had something to do with it - not having a normal childhood, I didn't have a precedent to compare it to.

Either way, we needed to get rolling again, so I quickly asked her a few questions. "Listen, Leo had a legit question. Where did you come from? If it was Pewter, we won't be able to help you except by taking you to some sort of center in Virdian. So..." I allowed my sentence to trail off.

Katya was calming down, instead settling down into a fascinated study of those still morphed. "I ran away from Mama and Papa in Virdian, so it shouldn't be an issue. Papa's a police officer, so you can just drop me off at his station." My jaw hit the leaf-strewn floor. Oh, crap.

((don't worry, she's not a threat :p ))

((zombiesohmygawd. she's a threat! she must be eliminated! haha.))

It was a pain in the arse, but taking the girl home was probably the right thing to do. Leo shrugged, basically agreeing with Axel's idea.

Oh, so she wasn't from one of the hidden villages... He also doubted a survivor would have both her parents, either... Leo sighed.

"Police office, huh...? That's nice... Wait," Leo turned to Axel. His expression was priceless. Leo turned to Cassie, giving her the nod and go ahead. It was up to Cassie whether this girl lived or died now. Any law enforcement meant Team Elemental.

((hahahaha :d))

((Haha good, no threat. The plot twist better not be Katya pulling a gun on us in Viridian Forest, though. ))

I rested on a fallen log and was about ready to go into the forest when a girl a little taller than Leo came out of the bushes. Apparently her name was Katya. I sat up, and looked at the group. The first reaction I saw was from Leo, looking a little annoyed my the fact that this girl was taller than him. Then, Cat morphed back to human form, scaring the life of her. Then, Leo topped it all off by grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her like he was trying to get a can of soda to explode while asking her a bunch of questions. I sighed, and Axel did the same, except in Mightyena form. I was about to intervene, but Axel made the first move. Ok, I'll just keep resting. I thought with a smile. Axel asked her where she was from, and then made a deal to take her through the forest with us. Fine by me, as long as her parents aren't cops.

Then, she said, "Papa's a police officer, so you can just drop me off at his station."

"Talk about a freaking jynx..." I mumbled.

After a little more conversation, everyone but Cat had approved to take the girl through the forest. She better say yes, I thought. because killing a little girl wouldn't exactly make my day.

((...It'd be rather interesting to the storyline, thought. ))

I folded my arms as I thought. "Oh what the hell. Let's take her back, but we can't afford to get seen. We'll take her to an alley or something, someplace near the police station but out of sight, and then let her go."

I turned to give the girl a death stare. "Katya, if you say one word to any Elemental people about us, no matter whether it's the janitor or Farquhar himself, I promise you, I will hunt you down, and it will be a race between my Garchomp's teeth and Charizard flame as to which one you die by. You and your family and everyone you care about."

Turning around to the rest of the team, I smirked, letting them know I wasn't serious.

Cat agreed to take Katya, but said we would let her go in an alley close to the station. Then, she told Katya that if she leaked information about us to anyone, she would pretty much kill her entire family. I thought she was serious, and right before I was about to step forward to tell Katya that it was an exaggeration, but Cat turned around and smiled, showing us it was a prank. Well, it's good to know that Cat can lighten up... In her own creepy way. I thought. Surprisingly, though, I actually thought it was pretty funny, even though Katya looked like she was about to burst into tears. After a few seconds in awkward silence, I walked up to Cat and whispered, "You don't think that was a little harsh? I mean, she's gonna cry unless she knows your kidding." I paused, and then laughed a little, "That was pretty funny though."

I walked up to Katya and kneeled down to look her in the eye, just like my Dad did to me whenever I cried. I put my one of my hands on her shoulder and said, "Hey, look. Don't freak out. Cat was just kidding. She can get, um, violent sometimes." I glanced back at Cat, "No offence." I said with a smile. I turned back to Katya and said, "So, yeah, calm down, nothing to worry about."

I guess I inherited the parent skill pretty good from my Mom and Dad, because after I stopped talking, she nodded, took a deep breath, and wiped the tears that were about to come out of her eyes. I turned and walked to stand beside Axel, then silently laughed and gave Cat a "You're welcome" look.

((I had to help, Lady scared the little girl. ))

Leo chuckled darkly. You know what? Cassie was alright. He liked her. She seemed to have the same sense of humour that he did. Hers was probably from experience, but he didn't mind that. There was no way he could be afraid of her. Leo chuckled to himself some more, then suddenly, he found himself stopping. He took a hand to his mouth in surprise. Leo was laughing... And it wasn't a forced laugh either. He was happy, and having fun. At least for that one moment in time and without his big sister, he was enjoying himself with the new friends he made. Leo smiled these thoughts away, thinking on the words of his Elder.

"These feelings are the things you gain during a pokemon journey. Someday, Leo, I hope you too will experience this."

Leo watched Seth comfort the girl. It was sometimes odd to see someone so caring, somewhat compassionate, and warm hearted. Leo's smirk from earlier faded. It was certainly obvious Seth still held in his heart the memories of his mum and dad tightly. Leo couldn't even remember his parents faces clearly... but he did remember their voices, and their last words. He glared.

"Be a good boy, Leo. Grow strong and protect your big sister, okay?"

"Leo, we'll always be with you, my darling. Never give up on yourself."

Leo turned away from the others. He was stuck with that frown, a frown you can't simply hide from others or fake away... A tear rolled down his face. Leo slapped his cheeks after rubbing his face. He had to think about the matter at hand and his goals for destroying Team Elemental. There was no time to be sad at a time like this. He took a short breath.

He turned blankly, somewhat to the girl named Katya, "Katya, right? Well, I like Cassie's last idea better, but I suppose it can't be helped. Hurry up and get a move on," Leo turned back to lead the way, walking into the forest. He wasn't going to lose composure again. Even if he had to act cold-heartedly. Being a Bulbasaur for a short amont of time, he felt the sensation of nature, the trees and the grass, leading him a path out of the forest. Whether or not it was leading him into the right direction was a different story. Leo never did venture the forest with his sister... they took to Diglett's Cave instead.

((Crunchy, you've been talking to EP, haven't you))

The dark humor and subsequent comfort offered to Katya calmed her down a little bit. I could see that she now understood the gravity of the situation; her opinions on us, however, were still up for debate. I calmly morphed back into Mightyena; there was nothing else to add. Cat's plan was best, so that's what we would do.

Leo had morphed back into Bulbasaur, and led us out an alternate route from the Viridian forest. Ahead of us lay a cave, dark and imposing. An old, corrugated iron sign read, "Diglett's cave - connects to Route 11." I mentally shrugged, then asked Leo, <Are you sure this leads out the right spot? We need to go to Viridian, which isn't near Route 11...> Katya looked worried.

((if you want, I guess we could find an alternate route through the caves; but we HAVE to go through Viridian as a major plot point.))

((He's on my facebook, but I haven't talked to him about the roleplay why?))

Leo's eye twitched. This wasn't the way he wanted to go AT ALL. Leo turned back into his human self, throwing himself into Axel's direction.

"Well, I was only trying to help! Besides," he turned to Diglett's Cave, "The sign is old. In fact, over the years, Diglett and Dugtrio have made multiple passages and tunnels connecting all over the place in Kanto. The cave's dangerous and dark though, so Cass should morph into Charizard and light us a path. We'll need the psychic pokemon, Beeheeyem and Noctowl, to lead us through and tell us directions. It's a maze in there, so we'll be counting on Jeremy and Seth so show us a clear and safe path. Viridian City is directly south of here."

Leo placed his hands into his pockets, looking to Axel smugly, "Think of this as a blessing. If we had just exited the forest from the south like morons, we could be walking right into a trap. Wasn't it the plan to avoid main roads all together?"

Leo turned to the cave once again, "...Don't be careless in there. One foot wrong and you'll be falling to your death. Trust me..." he shuddered, thinking of the time the cave floor collapsed from beneath him. Sarah was just barely able to save him; a dive and a reach of a hand...

((viral secrets roleplay reference for leo haha.))

((Hang on. We're at the Diglett cave entrance on Route 2, right? In which case we should be going SOUTH to get to Viridian, through Viridian Forest and most definitely not through the cave. Can someone please clear this up? Unless you mean we should use the cave as a shortcut to go under the forest.))

((Sorry about that! I fixed Leo's dialogue to say "directly south" instead of what I previously wrote "north". From memory, Diglett's Cave kinda goes South-East. So with Leo's description, yeah, we're going under the forest, if not around the entire thing and going around it underground until another passage leads us to a hole that pops up in Viridian City. My bad lol..))

I was already shaking my head at the mention of using my Charizard form in the caves, the fiery dragon protesting violently in the back of my mind at the notion of being under the earth. "That's not a good idea, in case you've forgotten Charizards are -extremely- weak to Rock-type attacks, they do -not- like being underground. If I use Charizard there, the dragon instincts are going to be on edge, one sudden move and I might end up barbecuing somebody. No."

Soothing the agitated dragon with an effort, I continued. "I can provide flame for one of the psychics to manipulate into torches, but I'm not using Charizard down there. Garchomp will be safer and more able to handle any threats posed by Diglett and Dugtrio, if not frighten them all off."

Leo slugged over, "Well, yeah, that's a valid option, too..." he wondered if having a two strong dragons as morphs affected her brain or instincts at all. He liked her, so he didn't wanted to say anything that would make her mad at him. He didn't know why. She was probably right anyway. Leo lifted his arms above his head, "You can be rest assured, we won't see many Diglett. It hasn't been long since I went through here to go to the actual route it was supposed to. We didn't see any Diglett whatsoever. Something must have scared them off a long time ago... That's why we figured the caves were so unstable."

Leo started to walk in, "Well, I was looking forward following the Charizard's tail, so to speak, so I didn't really want to do this... But I might as well help out a little," he morphed into the Pikachu, running down the cave, <How about this?!> he released an aura from his body, sending a flash down and into the multiple holes down and into the cave. When Leo stopped, his body continued to emit a glow that lit up the cave walls around him and them.

((Editted because I failed yet again lol.))

((Don't forget that we're using telepathy in morphed forms.))

I shifted into the black Charizard while waiting outside, biting off a thick tree branch and setting one end alight with a quick burst of flame, sticking the makeshift torch into the earth as Leo, in his Pikachu form, vanished into the cave. I poked my head in to call to him, then saw his bright glow and smiled.

<That'll do.>

Concentrating on my other form, I returned to human shape briefly, then resumed the Garchomp shape, the dark-blue dragon more than happy to enter the cave.

After a minute, Leo showed us we could go under the forest using Diglett's Cave. First he said Cat could walk with us in Charizard form. That got rejected; Charizard hates being underground. Then Cat said one of the Psychic Types could minipulate fire if she gave us some. "Hey, I'm more bird than psychic. I would leave more of the Telekinesis to Mr. Dictionary over there." After a little while, though, Leo wound up lighting up the cave with electricity and Cat was holding a makeshift torch in Garchomp form. "Well" I said, "I guess we should get moving." And stepped into the cave.

((Oh, no particular reason....))

Leo's point that walking straight through the forest might be a trap was valid. Katya could've even been bait, although probably unknowingly. If the caves really did cut underground to Viridian, then that would be the best option.

I shuddered slightly, however. Closed in, dark areas were not my cup of tea; it reminded me too much of an alley where I got mugged. I had come out of that experience alright, but still... Things popping up out of nowhere just seemed to occur more in caves.

<Well... I guess we better go inside, then.> The group walked into the cave, and Katya picked up the torch that Cat had made.