((OOC: Can I get my Skarmory swapped out for my Ho-oh? Thanks!))

After I left Inari Town, the dirt path I was walking on quickly turned into gravel, and gradually the grass all around me receded until I was in the jagged rocky terrain I knew the Kaolin Mountains to be famous for. I watched my feet carefully, picking myself across rocks, so as to avoid injuring myself. The land was steadily rising. Oh boy, this could be fun, I thought sarcastically.

I clambered up and over a particularly large rock, and took a breather. The view was amazing. Far off in the distance, I could see Inari Town, and its lush grasses and this surreal scene as the grass disappeared and turned into rock.

Suddenly at my belt there was a shaking. One of my Pokéballs was shaking like crazy. Curiously I picked it off of my belt and looked at it, holding on tightly so it didn’t go careening over the edge and down the mountain again. I couldn’t remember which Pokémon it was, I’d have to remember to mark them with something when I got to the next town. The creature inside finally got tired of waiting for me, and so I let the clasp on the red and white ball open, and a silvery form fly out, gradually turning into what I recognized as my Ho-oh.

Ho-oh let out what sounded like a triumphant half-chirp, half-caw. I smiled realizing what was going on.

“You like it up here don’t you Ho-oh? You were probably born up here weren’t you?” I asked it affectionately, while rubbing its head. Ho-oh butt his head against my hands playfully. It then unfurled its rainbow-coloured wings completely, and jumped off of where we were, soaring gracefully around where I had rested. The sight of Ho-oh in flight was so magnificent I couldn’t help but smile.

After a couple minutes of stretching its wings, it came to a landing next to me once more, however this time it seemed more wary. Had it seen something that I hadn’t yet while I was watching it?

Just then, you notice some completely awesome music! It's from the soundtrack for the Wii/PS2 game, Okami! Ushiwaka's dance, playing wit! Course, since you've never heard it before, it just sounds weird! But climbing up a little higher, you see a trainer and their Spinda...um...can what can be only assumed to be dancing to it. And to your amazement, there are tons of Pokémon circled around, clapping to the beat.

In the very, very, very back of your mind, you realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to snag a couple of them, of course, more prominent on your thinking to-do list is pondering these two... You personally didn't think their dance was anything amazing, you just thought it was wierd. So the question at hand is, do you pay them to dance well, mr. PokéBay?

I blinked a couple times, trying to figure out what to make of the two. The Spinda’s dance was really funny though, all it did was spin around and around and around in different ways, the confused swirls of its eyes only getting more intense as it went. Eventually the comedy of the situation hit me so hard I burst out laughing, right there on the spot.

Abruptly the trainer turned around to face me, eyes wide open. He had been facing the other way this whole time and had only noticed me just now. I noticed the faint tinge of a blush starting on his cheeks as he started wondering how long I had been there. He quickly lowered the music of the stereo by his feet and started forwards. But not before he noticed the pokémon over my shoulder, sitting proudly on its talons.

His face went white as if he’d seen a ghost. “Hi, I’m Ryan!” I introduced myself, as the trainer obviously wasn’t capable of speech at the current moment, “and this is my Ho-oh.” I continued nonchalantly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world for a trainer to have a captured, legendary bird. “If you want to see it in action, I’d be happy to battle you?” I offered casually. This was turning out to be incredibly fun.

The pokémon that had previously been watching the trainer dancing looked rather disappointed, but seemed a little interested that they had been graced by the presence of a legendary and watched to see if the strange dancing human would accept the other human’s offer.

The trainer spurttled something out (Yes, spurttled. :P) a few times, before managing to get his thoughts out. "BY GOD THAT'S THE LEGENDARY BIRD HO-OH!!!" he shouted, pointing at the colourful bird Pokémon. At this point, the Spinda tripped (yes, on nothing) and fell right onto it's face, before getting up and seeing what all the commotion was about. "Spin...da?" Hmm... Apparently Spinda still didn't have a full grasp on the situation.

Many of the other circled Pokémon looked to each other with curiousity, others looked towards you, a little annoyed at you having disrupted the fun, and a few others stared towards the Ho-oh. Most of them were Geodude and Sandshew and the such, as well as a small skattle of others. Each of them, though, looked like they had been having a fun time... Perhaps cutting their fun short wasn't the best idea. Of course, perhaps it'd be better to respond to the trainer before bothering with thinking about the other Pokémon about first.

At this, I started to feel myself getting frustrated. Tolerance of other peoples’ stupidity was not my strong point. Behind me, Ho-oh gave a loud squawk, preparing its talons. It obviously was itching for a fight. The trainer stepped back a bit in shocked fear.

“Er yes, I think I just established that,” I spoke, trying not to make my frustration evident. “So do you want to battle or not?”

The Spinda just stared up at me, although whether it could actually see me or not with those eyes of it was open to debate. The pokémon circled around looked anxious for a battle as well. After all, it wasn’t every day Ho-oh showed up at your doorstep looking for a fight!

"A-a battle?! With me?!" he asked, suddenly sounding very pleased at the idea. "I'll have the chance to fight one of the legendary birds?! Oh, of course!" So I don't forget to mention, he glomped Spinda, the little Pokémon waving its arms around dizzily. By this point it was obvious that it had no idea what was going on. "You hear that, Spinda!? We get to fight a legendary Pokémon!!!"
"Spindaaaa."
"Alright, Spinda, let's do our best!" he said, putting down the little Pokémon which trotted in front of him. "By the way, I'm Sony! May I be graced with your name, fellow trainer?"

If I was in an anime, I’m sure a sweatdrop would have appeared by my head by now. As it stood however, I tried to humour him. He seemed as scatterbrained as his Spinda. Hmm, a perfect combo.

“Er, I’m Ryan,” I said trying not to laugh again, “You must have missed it while Ho-oh stunned you.” Sony seemed to realize this and smiled sheepishly.

“Oh sorry about that Ryan,” he said with a chuckle. “Well, let’s do this!”

His enthusiasm couldn’t help but make me smile. Hmm, maybe I should crush him a little slower? Nah. “Alright then, let’s go Ho-oh!” Ho-oh screeched triumphantly, starting to use its wings to hover just off the ground. “Let’s start by testing this Spinda’s agility! Use Ancientpower!” Ho-oh’s eyes closed, and it started focusing. From behind Spinda, a cluster of rocks detached themselves from the ground and hurtled towards it!

From behind Sony's leg, a small girl emerges. A seriously small girl. Either a very young child or a tiny midget. :XD: "OHMYGOD IT REALLY IS A HO-OH!" she squeals.

"Uh..." you deadpan.

"This is my sister, Playstation," Sony mutters, looking a little exasperated.

"I LOVE HO-OHS! I HAVE A COLLECTION OF HO-OH TOYS AT HOME!" She looks up at you in glee. "CAN I JOIN YOUR BATTLE? TWO ON TWO PLEASE? PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP AND BERRIES IN THE MIDDLE? :D"

To indulge the hyper, capslock abusing child or not to indulge the hyper, capslock abusing child...that is the question. Especially since she's looking up at you with puppy eyes.

((OOC: Need another Pokémon swap. xD Ralts for Staryu. Thanks!))
I swear, my sweatdrop had to be at least as large as this mountain by this point. Geez, is their entire family this weird? “Er, I guess that’s fine… you wouldn’t happen to have a sibling named Gamecube would you?” I smiled myself at the joke as the large rocks collided with the back of Spinda’s head, sending it face down. Obviously the siblings didn’t find it funny. Maybe they really had someone named Gamecube. That would be weird. Or maybe it was the Ancientpower that had got the pokémon. Whatever the case, I didn’t give them time to answer as scrolled through my head, thinking of the pokémon currently on my belt and who would synergize best with Ho-oh.

Thinking of someone, I pulled a red-and-white ball off my belt, hoping is was the right one. “Let’s do this, go Staryu!” Staryu gave a strange battle cry as it lept from the ball, its gem glinting briefly in the sun. I waited on who Playstation would release before I realized something. Didn’t you have to be 10 to become a pokémon trainer? This girl was obviously not 10.

Playstation contemplates for a moment, lips pursed. "GO, ESPEON!" The psychic type cat...thing must've read your mind and transmitted your thoughts to the girl, because she angrily exclaims, "I AM TOO TEN. REALLY. I SWEAR."

"...you're six," Sony says.

"...THEN I DEFINITELY DIDN'T STEAL MOM'S CREDIT CARD, AND I WOULD NEVER USE IT TO BUY POKEMON ON POKEBAY."

"...you bought $10,000-worth of Pokemon and ran away so you wouldn't be grounded when she found out. And I chased after you to keep you safe. Otherwise, I'd be at home playing the Wii."

You stare at Sony. "W-what? Just because I'm named Sony doesn't mean I can't play Nintendo games."

"..." Playstation kicks Sony in the shins. "THAT WAS FOR REVEALING MY DEEPEST, DARKEST SECRETS! I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE EVISCERATED YOU WHEN I CAUGHT YOU READING MY DIARY, BUT NO. I LET YOU LIVE, AND NOW YOU'VE BETRAYED OUR FAMILY NAME!"

...O___________________O Scary kid.

“Eh…” I started. You know what, I didn’t want to get involved with that. My sweatdrop had to encompass the entire Milky Way galaxy now.

Focusing on the battle now, I started to think. Alright, I can do this. “Ho-oh, focus on Espeon for now. Throw a Shadow Ball at it!” As Ho-oh started forming a ball of dark energy, I turned my attention to Staryu. “Staryu, use Swift on Spinda!”

Staryu spun around a couple times, forming and letting loose multiple sharp stars that shot towards Spinda, while Ho-oh finished forming its Shadow Ball and launching it at Espeon!

The stars made by swift hit Spinda and knocked it back, flipping it back completely and having it land on its stomach. The Pokémon slowly got up again. "Spiiiin....?"

"Alright! That's the stuff, Spinda! Now, use Teeter Dance!" Sony commanded. Oh, yes. They started dancing again, the both of them. It was made you dizzy just watching. And it'd confuse any Pokémon who focussed to much on the awkward movement patterns.

"YOU DORK!" Playstation shouted in her little-kid voice as she kicked Sony in the other shin.
"AHH! OW!!!" he cried out, falling over and hodling his shin. "Playstatiooooon!!!" he cried out. Poor guy... I mean, he had to deal with her all the time, too, right?

In any case, with an "Esp!", Espeon gracefully jumped out of the way of the Shadow Ball. Darned cat. Immediately after jumping out of the attack's way, a dark purple sphere of psychic energy built up in front of its crystal, before the kitty aimed and fired back towards Hooh!

OMGWTFBBQ. Wait, WTF, when did I start using acronyms? Dang kids, must be messing with my mind, they’re so… weird! Shaking my head from that weird trance I saw the Shadow Ball coming towards Ho-oh fast, and Ho-oh’s confusion at what was up or down thanks to Teeter Dance.

“Ho-oh! Don’t try to find it, just fire a Fire Blast at 2 o’clock!” Ho-oh recognized my command through its haze and did exactly what I said. The Fire Blast blasted through Shadow Ball, dissipating it, and now a fierce inferno was headed towards Espeon. Hah, try to dodge THAT, stupid cat.

“Staryu! Er… First off I’m not gonna ask how it’s possible for you to get confused seeing as you don’t have eyes but… er… Hit Spinda with Water Pulse!”

Staryu started to gather water in front of it, and then shot it towards Spinda!

"Come on, Spinda, evade it!" Sony called. The Spinda, erm, teetered about, apparently hoping to avoid the Water Pulse. Which it didnt, and was sent back and landed on its stomach again. "Spiiiiin....."
"Ah, no! It's alright, Spinda, you tried!" he said, coaxing the Pokémon back to its feet. "Alright, Spinda, I want you to go and hit that Staryu with Dizzy Punch!"
"Spiiindaaaa," the Pokémon said as it teetered its way towards Staryu, before reeling back and coming back with a punch towards its opponent!

Espeon got a massive sweatdrop, seeing the massive flaming star flying towards it. You can just imagine what it's thinking! The flaming star plowed through the poor Pokémon, leaving it there, stunned and burned at the same time. Again, you can imagine what's going through its head. :XD:

“Staryu, dodge!” I yelled quickly. Staryu snapped out of whatever confusion it might have had and flipped itself over the poor Spinda. While Spinda looked about, wondering where the giant brown star that its trainer had told it to hit had gone, Staryu shot a Bubblebeam at it, pointblank! The Spinda went flying forwards from the insane force of the wave of bubbles. “Nice job Staryu!” I shouted happily, turning my attention towards Ho-oh and its crispy opponent.

“All right Ho-oh, while it can’t dodge too well, try another Shadow Ball!” Ho-oh smirked slightly as it sent a black ball of dark energy towards to poor Espeon. Espeon just winced slightly while it tried to think of something it could do.

The Shadow Ball hit dead-on! Great job, Trainer! Espeon is thrown back by the blast, though it momentarily returned to its feet and shook off some of the ashes on its body. x.x "Esp! Esp!!!" it growled angrily, charging up a psybeam and shooting it towards Ho-oh.

Spinda slowly struggled back to its feet, and looked behind it towards Spinda. "Come on, Spinda, let's do a Rain Dance and follow up with Water Pulse!" Sony shouted. Spinda nodded and they started dancing again, Sony managing to avoid his sister's foot this time. Watch out, it's starting to rain now, and here comes the Water Pulse!!! :P

I watched as Staryu dug two of its legs into the ground and took the impact from Water Pulse with hardly a scratch. Hah, good thing that Staryu was a Water type, and Spinda wasn’t!

“Hah! You call that a Water Pulse? Staryu, show that Spinda what a Water Pulse truly is!” Staryu made a sound that sounded faintly like… laughter? How does that work? Oh well.

Staryu gathered power from both the Rain Dance and its own Water-type and shot a large wave of water towards Spinda with a quick spin of its body!

Figuring that had been taken care of for now, I turned my attention to Ho-oh, seeing that there was nothing I could do for that Psybeam. “Hmm, the first hit eh? Too bad I’m going to try and make it the only.” I stated smugly to Playstation. Wow, if looks could kill, all 6 of us would be dead. Poor Sony. “Let’s go, Ho-oh, Sky Attack!” At my words Ho-oh cawed triumphantly. It spread its wings and majestically took to the sky, seeking out a weakness in Espeon’s defences. The ring of pokémon from before gasped as they stared up at Ho-oh in his element. They seemed to really enjoy this battle, especially the insane girl who liked eviscerating people.

Espeon stared skyward, looking a bit defeated. It had already taken a full on Fire Blast and Shadow Ball. How much more could it take?

Spinda was hurt pretty badly. Lucky for Sony, it still had the energy to fight. Though you could see its heavy breaths.
"Spinda!" Sony cried out, worried for his Pokémon.
"Spin....daaa...." it could be heard painting.
"C'mon, Spinda! Let's make use of this situation!" Sony called. "Use Flail on that Staryu!"
"Da!"

The Pokémon dashed towards Staryu with a surprising burst of energy before *exhaustedly* flopping down on top of it! And all that exhausted-ness built up into that wonderful Poké-flop! Which dealt a good hit to Staryu!

Meanwhile, with Espeon staring skywards, Playstation finally started acting like a trainer and gave it a command! :XD: "Espeon! Use Reflect to raise your defense!" she ordered, and Espeon replied with an "Esp!" The Pokémon then created a barrier out of light, which would somehow decrease the physical damage done to it!

Ho-oh frowned at the minor annoyance that Espeon had just created around itself. It examined the angles from the sky for a couple more seconds. Then, finding a weaker spot in the shield that the phoenix thought it could penetrate, it suddenly shot down towards Espeon! Espeon braced itself for impact as the bird crashed its body onto the cat pokémon, and raked it with claws before managing to land a good ten feet behind Sony and Playstation. Espeon looked up tiredly, trying to force itself to keep fighting. Could it make it after everything it had been through?

“Espeon! Don’t give up, please! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT BROTHER!” Playstation shrieked and kicked Sony in the shin as it watched helplessly to see whether Espeon could hold on.

“OW!!! How is this my fault, it’s your Pokémon! Besides, you are facing a legendary!”

I sighed and tuned out their squabbling and turned to my Staryu while Sony was… “preoccupied”. Staryu has managed to somehow crawl its way out from under Spinda, but Spinda hadn’t moved at all. I knew it wasn’t fainted yet. Was it trying to play dead?

“Staryu, use Power Gem on Spinda!” Staryu gave a cry as it recognized my command. The jewel that was its core began to glow a brilliant red, and a bolt of energy flew from the gem and exploded on Spinda, leaving a little bit of smoke behind! I covered my eyes with my arm to protect my face from the blast and awaited the outcome.

Spinda was blown back out of the smoke and landed hard on the ground. "Oh no, Spinda!" Sony cried out as he ran onto the battlefield and picked up the Pokémon, who's eyes were dizzy spirals. Then again, weren't they always? "It's alright, Spinda. You did your best," he said, patting the barely-conscious Pokémon on the head before looking back towards Playstation and sticking out a tounge at her.

"Hey! You're mean!" she cried out in that (getting increasingly annoying) little kid voice of hers. "What about Espeon???"

"You should watch your own back!" Sony said back to her, standing up. "Besides, it's not like you pay me any respect in the first place!!!" He said, turning away from her. From your angle you could see the pain on his face. He really did love her. Though she was such a pain. It...makes you kinda glad you don't travel with a litltle kid yourself.

"Well...well.... FINE THEN!!!" Playstation yelled, looking back towards Espeon. "Espeon! Um, uh, erm..."
"Espeon! Use Morning Sun followed by Double Team!" Sony said with a strong voice, still not facing his sister, who looked towards him with confusion.

Espeon nodded. "Esp!" With that, it started to glow for a few moments, healing itself some, before creating about a dozen copies of itself! Looks like Sony's gonna watch Playstation's back anyways... Even though she just kicked him in the shin again for that. :sweatdrop:

I scowled, this Espeon was a damn pain in the ass.

“Alright guys!” I yelled, addressing the two Pokémon. “Let’s hit it hard and fast, don’t hold back. Ho-oh, blast Espeon with your Sacred Fire! Staryu, follow up Ho-oh’s Sacred Fire with a Hydro Pump while it’s immobile!”

The two cried in triumphance. Ho-oh began by flapping its wings in a series of intricate movements, followed by a burst of heat from its mouth which gradually took shape into a flaming Ho-oh! The Ho-oh surveyed its multiple opponents calmly and then noticing that they were in the form of a line shot across the Espeons, causing two to disappear and one to be blown backwards! While Espeon on its side, Staryu gathered water in ront of its gem and shot it out at the now revealed Espeon.

Espeon got up then blinked as it noticed the blast nearing. Today wasn’t its day.

Espeon's eyes widened and then it was hit by the powerful blast of water, being sent flying several meters and knocked out! Playstation ran over to the unconscious Espeon and started bawling her eyes out like the little annoying brat that she was. XD

Sony sighed and walked over to you and offered a hand. "Ryan... Thanks. That was a great match," he said. After shaking your hand like the good sport that he was, he dug in his pocket and pulled out some money and put it in your hand. "Here. You deserve this!" He just gave you, like, over five hundred dollars!!! All you can do (possibly) is stare at the pile of money he just handed you. Meanwhile, Playstation was still crying her eyes dry, and to your pleasure, Ho-oh and Staryu both leveled up! Twice! :P

Sony looked over at Playstation and sighed. “Maybe I’ll see you again sometime and have a rematch when I’ve got some new Pokémon.” He said smiling at me. Before I could respond he walked over to Playstation and dragged her onwards with him, back the direction I came from.

I just stood there blinking. Well, that was odd. Oh well. I pulled out what I thought was Staryu’s pokéball and moved to return it. Instead of the red light I expected though, it was white, and out popped my silvery Eevee who clung to my neck mewling. Oh dear. Not another one. I really had to get these labeled.

I sighed and this time found the right pokéball for Staryu and in an instant he was back inside his ball. I then went to return Eevee and Ho-oh to their spheres but Ho-oh took flight with a surprised squawk and Eevee danced around my head and shoulders, evading the laser.

“Okay fine, you can stay out.” I declared rolling my eyes. Ho-oh came back to hover beside me. Hmm, how was I going to explain a giant legendary bird if I ran into somebody else? Maybe the same way I did with Sony. I laughed at the thought and Eevee looked at me, puzzled. I just smiled and ruffled the hair on its head, and it jumped back ontop of my head with a quick “Eev!”, curling up and enjoying the ride.

Ho-oh was eyeing the Pokémon who had watched it battling, but they ran away in fear. There was no way any of them wanted to face something THAT ferocious. Ho-oh squawked triumphantly, as if saying “Hah that’s right, you run away.” I however just rolled my eyes and took a better look at my location.

We were on a rocky plateau, many feet above the ground. About 20 meters ahead, the plateau gradually climbed again and as I looked from this spot I was able to see my next location, the Borealis Peak, a snowy mountain far above me. Well, no time like the present, I thought and started to climb while Eevee hung for dear life, and Ho-oh circled the area.

You hike up even higher, and higher, and higher, and... "We've finally reached the top of the mountain!" There, you are sucker-punched and fall all the way back down the to the bottom you see a tiiiiiiiiny little speck waaaaaaay down below. This MUST have been the town of Inari! Geez, you were such a long way up. It'd suck if someone sucker-punched you and you tumbled back down!

Luckily for you, no one did that. Instead, it seemed completely deserted. Or at least until something knocked Eevee off of your head! And so Eevee tumbles all the way back down the mountain back to Inari! And a Sandshrew was now on your head instead, and Eevee was on the ground! You wonder if Sandshrew is lonely? It certainly seemed to want the attention that Eevee got. XD

“Uh…” I blinked as I slowly reached towards my belt. If I could slowly reach for an empty pokéball while it didn’t notice…

Sandshrew started cuddling around my head, not noticing a thing. Not even the angry Eevee that was now growling at it from my feet. I sent a warning signal at it with my eyes while I quietly unclipped a ball. Ho-oh seemed to be able to sense my feelings and so stayed out of sight.

I raised my right arm, clutching the pokéball. I only had one shot at this. When it reached my shoulder, I shot my arm up and pressed the ball’s button against the Pokémon, and jumped back as it fell to the ground, starting to wiggle!

“HAHA!” I shouted in triumph, and Eevee jumped back onto its rightful spot. I watched the ball anxiously, because I knew that asking for it to succeed the first time was quite a bit much. Strangely though, it didn’t look like Sandshrew was struggling much…

The ball wiggled a couple times but then stopped! Lucky, LUCKY you!!! You caught Sandshrew on your first try!!! XD However, just when you relaxed, it popped out of the Pokeball and glomped you!!! Oh, no, don't worry, you still got it. XD It's just...kinda...glued to you, shall we say in a most definite not-literal way?

"Oh God, not another one." I said smiling. Sandshrew could tell I didn't really mean it and it found a pocket big enough for it in my jeans, making a happy “shrew!” sound.

And just when it got comfortable it started turning white as my box realized that I had 7 pokémon on hand and that just would not do. In a flash of light, Sandshrew and the ball were back in the box and I headed into a small camp at the top of Borealis Peak

As you step into camp, you realize that this little community has much in it, including a railway that passed by there. This camp must've been a common stop for trainers coming through here, and they were probably well-stocked, with the railway available. If you wanted, you could probably rest here and restock on supplies before continuing on.

(You may move on, Trainer!)