8 Hold It and Look Out!

The kids lined up to receive their 10 Pokeballs and a map, most looked excited to get going. But Mark who was in the middle of the queue started fidgeting as the nervousness started getting to him. After seeing how the Houndour looked at him, he wondered if they were even able to use it.

"Hey Mark, can you hear me?" Mark looked up to see Jason in the reflection of a window and nodded. "Great, look when you get up there ask for some pokemon food"

"F-food?" Mark muttered softly.

"Yeah, if what I'm thinking is correct we'll need to bribe that little fire bastard with some food," Jason said as he looked at the other kids. "Don't worry, we aren't in the worst situation. Do you remember that kid with a Munchlax? I'd doubt that kid will be able to even get that fat lazy thing to even attack a pokemon. At least with this Houndour, we'll have a shot at finding something good, just trust me. We can do this!"

After the rest finished collecting their share, it was Mark's turn.

"Umm, is it possible to get some pokemon food?" Mark asked, looking at Professor Acker who nodded.

"Yes you can, though it'll cost you 2 Pokeballs. How about it?"

"It's better than having a pokemon wanting to rip your arm out. Take the deal" Jason said from the window reflection.

"Y-yeah that would be great," Mark said as he handed over 2 of the Pokeballs he received. Professor Acker upon receiving the 2 Pokeballs handed over a bag of pokemon food that weighed about 500 grams.

"Huh, I was expecting them to give us like one pellet or something," Jason said as he looked at the bag. "Alright, let's just hope this idea pays off."

The other kids looked at Mark with confusion but didn't bother to follow him. However, the girl who obtained the skunky walked over to him.

"Hey, why did you decide to get that pokemon food?" She asked, looking at the bag of pokemon food.

"W-" Mark was going to respond but was stopped by Jason.

"Hold it! Remember we can't help anyone in this mission! It's better to be careful with what we say. They might consider any advice as help! Just say we were just checking if we could."

"U-umm I was just c-checking if I could that was all..." Mark replied.

"Tch, alright keep your secrets..." The girl said before leaving Mark alone.

"Alright with everyone, with that all settled let's get going." Professor Acker said and took out a Pokeball. From it out came an Alakazam. "Please stand away from each other! We will be teleporting in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!"

With a flash of light, Mark blinked his eyes and found himself in an entirely different place. There wasn't anyone else around him. Seeing how there wasn't any reflection in sight either, Mark brought out the handheld mirror they bought.

"Well, that was trippy when you teleported like that. Totally messed up the mirror's image. Anyways let's get that Houndour out and feed it that pokemon food."

Mark nodded as he prepared the bag of pokemon food before sending out the Houndour. The moment the Houndour appeared it shook its head before looking around. It looked at Mark and immediately went into a defensive position, moving back a few steps and showing its teeth, growling at him.

"U-Uhhh hey err who's a good boy?" Mark said but triggered the Houndour to growl even louder "O-oh good girl! I mean good girl! Sorry!"

The Houndour's eyes narrowed as it started circling Mark.

"H-hey errr I have some food if you'd like?" Mark said as he placed some of the food on the soft grass and stepped away, "You can have some if you'd like..."

The Houndour's nose twitched a bit before slowly approaching the food. After a quick sniff, it started licking up the food, its eyes still locked on Mark.

"Jeez, that's one cautious Houndour..." Jason muttered "Hey Mark, take a look at its side. You can see its damn ribcage, just how are they taking care of these pokemon?"

"You had it rough huh?" Mark asked as he took out another hand full of food "I-I have some more. Here, have some."

Houndour looked at the food on Mark's hand and approached him slowly. It took another quick sniff before eating the food out of Mark's hand.

Mark looked closer at the Houndour. Just like Jason said he could see the bones of the Houndour, and Mark felt immense pity for it. "Hey Houndour, umm I need some help to find a pokemon for myself. Could you help me? I could give you some more food."

The Houndour stopped to look at Mark before nodding and barking a sound of approval. Mark smiled brightly and handed over more food for the Houndour to chow down on.

"Hey now give it any more food and it'll end up with a food coma. We can drown it in food after finding a starter."

"Y-yeah your right. Although, I have no idea where we are..." Mark said and took out the map he received. With his knowledge of how to read maps, and judging by the river nearby and the trees. He judged that he was northwest of the zone and was nearby a waterfall.

"OK, Houndour let's start moving. Maybe we can find something before nighttime!" Mark said and Houndour barked in response.

As they walked through the forest, Mark noticed there were pokemon all over the place. Up in the trees were Starlys resting on branches, and below in an open area were a group of Budews basking in the sunlight. As they got closer to the river, Mark spotted a bunch of Bidoof playing with each other near the water with sticks in their mouths. And he could see Magikarp swimming in the clear waters.

"Hmmm, now that I think about it... Buizel would be pretty difficult with Houndour. We should have asked for some potions as well now that I think about it." Jason said as he appeared in the reflection of the water. " Alright let's follow this stream up to the waterfall, we might something interesting there."

Max nodded and with Houndour started walking upstream. The pokemon around them didn't seem to really care about the both of them. However, he did see a Starly or two eyeing them while perched on their branches.

At some point, Mark even spotted a Staravia, but it was surrounded by many Starlys. Attempting to try and catch it would likely result in the whole flock attacking. The waterfall was quite small, only a few meters high. But it was enough to see Magikarps trying to climb it, doing their best to swim against the current and up the waterfall.

In the surroundings, Mark noticed Woopers laying in the mud as they basked in the sun. Payducks could be seen under the waterfall as the water smashed onto their heads. But although there was a variety of water pokemon, there wasn't a Buizel insight.

"Hmmm, well let's keep this spot in mind. Psyduck is an option, but Wooper will be difficult to use." Jason said as he checked out the pokemon.

He noticed that there was a slight variation in the pokemon in front of them. Like the Woopers in the mud, each of their sizes was slightly different from the other. And the pattern on their belly had differences as well, one had their middle line longer and thinner while the other hand had a rounder and fatter line.

"U-umm so that leaves Starly, Roselia, or Machop?" Mark asked as he looked around, while Houndour looked at him strangely.

"Yeah, let's put Starly on hold now since we've seen dozens of them so far. Might even get a Staravia if we find out away from its flock." Jason replied "Let's look back in the forest around here. With this many Budew, there's bound to be a Roselia popping up."

Heading back into the forest Mark tried to find a Roselia or Machop but couldn't find anything. However, they had noticed some of the trees in the area having dents in them, as if something had smashed into them. Though searching around the area didn't result in anything new.

Wurmple seemed to be a regular sight here, even though they were native to Hoenn. There were a few Silcoons and Cascoons hanging from trees but Jason wasn't interested in them. The same went for the Burmys they came across.

"Hey Mark, so if you were to pick a starter pokemon for yourself. What'd you choose?"

"M-me? Well, maybe something that you'd choose?"

"No like let's say I didn't end up crash landing into your life. What would you have picked?"

"Um... probably a Budew? Or a Bidoof if I couldn't find any..."

"Really? Any reason why?"

"W-well mom has a Rosarade... but I don't think you've seen it. It's always been kind of me whenever I met it so, I'd like to also have one... and I heard Bidoofs were easy to handle so I think I would have ended up with that."

As Mark was talking to Jason through the mirror, Houndour started barking at him. Mark turned to look at Houndour to see what was wrong but it just looked at the mirror and back to him.

"Err looks like that Houndour is wondering why you are talking to yourself in a mirror," Jason said as he looked at the Houndour. "We might have to explain the situation to our new starter pokemon once we get it. For now, let's not talk so much around Houndour."

Mark nodded and continued moving through the forest. The sun was going down soon and they weren't any closer to obtaining any pokemon that they were interested in. Just as Mark was about to give up and find a Starly, a wild Luxio appeared from the bushes. Its nose twitched, likely smelling the food Mark had with him. With a snarl it started approaching Mark and Houndour, electricity sparking from its fur and its sharp carnivorous teeth bared at them.

"Huh, well that's handy. A Luxio would be a great choice" Jason said "Quick, Houndour should know ember. If we get this Luxio then we'll be ok."

"Ok, Houndour let's do this! Use ember on that Luxio!" Mark commanded, and Houndour gathered a mini fireball in its mouth and shot it at the Luxio.

The fireball was surprisingly quick, hitting the Luxio on its right side as it failed to move away in time. The impact caused the Luxio to get pushed back a bit, its fur burnt by the flames. The Luxio growled in anger and rushed towards Houndour with its mouth open, its fangs wrapped in electricity.

Mark stepped back a bit, seeing a pokemon like Luxio charging at him made him stunned for a moment. His first immediate reaction was to flee, to run away from the pokemon in front of him.

"Hey kid, get it together! Don't let Houndour get hit by that!" Jason shouted, "Tell it to dodge to the right then use ember!"

"Y-yeah like what Jason said... quickly dodge to the right Houndour!"

Houndour hearing the command quickly dodged to his left, just barely dodging the Luxio who ended up chomping on thin air.

"O-ok use ember!" Mark said, Houndour again gathered a small fireball in its mouth and launched it. The fireball smashed right into Luxio's face when it looked at Houndour. It shouted in pain and stepped a few steps back.

"Ok, at least our Houndour is able to move pretty well. Quickly throw a Pokeball at the Luxio."

Mark takes out a Pokeball from the side of his bag and threw it at the Luxio who was still staggered from the ember. The ball landed on the side of the Luxio and a bright flash of light appeared as the Luxio went into the ball.

The ball landed on the ground. The Pokeball shook twice, and just as Mark thought they just got a Luxio, the Pokeball broke, and out came the Luxio who was more pissed off than before. The Luxio stepped back and started to roar in the air.

Jason had thought this was just the move Roar, but instead, he started hearing more roars echoing in the forest. Jason felt an unnerving feeling as the number of roars increased. And suddenly a sudden burst of lightning came down from the sky, striking down in front of both Houndour and Max. The impact of the lightning-caused a shockwave that pushed both of them back.

Mark and Houndour got back up, with Houndour receiving most of the shockwave. Its legs were shaky as it stood up, looking around to find the source of the attack. And soon a figure came out of the bushes, behind it were more Luxio. A pokemon far larger than the Luxio was leading the pack. Electricity arched around its black fur, its piercing yellow eyes gazing at both Mark and Houndour.

"Holy shit why the fuck is there a Luxray here?! Mark, let's get the fuck out of here! Run!"

The Luxray roared into the sky, preparing another thunder to strike down on both of them. This time, it might not miss. Mark and Houndour quickly turned tail and ran as fast as they could. There weren't any sounds of footsteps following them but they weren't taking any chances. After a minute of running, the pair slowed down as they started getting exhausted. Finally, they stopped in a clearing in the forest with bits of exposed stone. Houndour laid on the ground as it started panting trying to catch its breath.

"W-was that a... L-Luxray?" Mark asked while lying next to Houndour, taking out the hand-held mirror. "T-that was my first time... seeing one..."

"Yeah well, that was probably not the best circumstances to meet one," Jason said as he appeared in the mirror. "I didn't think there would be a final evolution lurking about in here. Thankfully the Luxray didn't seem like it wanted to chow down on us."

They stayed silent for a while both Houndour and Mark took a breather. Once a few seconds had passed Mark got up to look around.

"Ermm... so where are we?" Mark said and tried to look through his pockets, only to find that he had dropped the map as they were running away. "Oh no... the map!"

"Well that's that, more importantly, we need to find some shelter. Those clouds in the sky don't look very friendly." Jason said as, above them, the sky was slowly getting darker as clouds started gathering. "And it's going to start being dark soon. Did we bring a tent?

"Ermm, it was attached to the bag on the side but..."

"Oh of course it's gone. Shit, we'll just have to find a cave or something."

Mark nodded as he got up, but something seemed to have cracked under them. Houndour started panicking as it started scrambling to stand up and run but it was too late. the ground had broken under them and they started falling down.