[FIN] HAPPY BIRTHDAY

[Tori Honoo]

With the weather getting warmer-- and LOTS of training to do!-- the world would find itself explored by a young boy and his pokemon friends almost every day, for longer periods of time, in a much wider variety of places. With his backpack tossed (carefully) to the side, Jace kneeled in the grass, currently stroking the back of a young green aron, his expression bright as he offered her a few berries. "See, Rona? You did a great job!" She had done well in her battle against his swablu, though, of course, Jace knew she would--he wouldn't tell her about picking weaker types though. Not on her first few battles, anyway. He was rather proud of the rock-steel type having raised her from her hatching. In general, he was proud of his team anyway.

Dawn, having already received her berries, sat perched on the boy's shoulder, gently cooing her own encouragement at the tired aron. Rona had, indeed, done well.

Chester lazed in the grass for once, yawning contently as he watched over his teammates, while Zap hopped about, wiggling and playing the grass.  

[Gwennythe]

"HI JACE!" It was probably a very familiar voice, even though it was shouted and from quite a bit of distance away still.

Just coming into view, atop a new, yellow, bicycle, was Henrietta, riding through the field, with Gummy clinging to the bars in front of her, and Bistra fluttering along above, worriedly.
Hen' was not the smoothest of riders, though she seemed to have gotten used to the practice of cycling quite quickly.  

[Tori Honoo]

The familiar voice drew a huge grin across the boy's face, and he turned to look over his shoulder as Dawn fluttered up into the air, eager to greet the girl and her pokemon properly. The unstable control of the bike under its rider, however, worried her also, apparent when her greeting became a confused and concerned tweet to her forest kin.

The boy, after patting the aron's back once more, rose to his feet, laughing, as Chester started a bit and sat up properly as well. Zap scurried away quickly and dashed up her boy's arm. "Whoa! Hi!"  

[Gwennythe]

The reply Dawn would get would be an exasperated song about how insistent the young trainer was and how the bike was new...

Still, Henrietta wasn't exactly steady, but she wasn't in too much danger of falling off it seemed... maybe crashing if she was unlucky but there was, at least, little to crash into out here.
"HI JACE!" She yelled again, getting closer.  

[Tori Honoo]

"What's up?!" he laughed, reaching up to pet Zap's head as little sparks of excitement shot from her cheeks. Chester took up his post next to his boy, while a growlithe appeared from the forest nearby where she had been exploring.

Dawn tweeted a happy laugh, and wiggled her body in the air-- a fond (if still concerned) headshake.  

[Gwennythe]

"I got a bike!" Henrietta called out the obvious, finally getting close enough to stop shouting all the time.

She skidded to a stop, putting one foot down to steady herself as the two-wheeled vehicle halted and threatened to tip.

Gummy remained unconcerned.  

[Tori Honoo]

"That's awesome! What for?! Man, I bet you can go all over now! Have you seen lots of new pokemon on it?!" he asked, making sure to give the girl a wide birth for her bike and dismount.

Dawn, glad to see the girl had finally stopped and was at least mostly stable, fluttered and nestled down on the Hen's head, offering her an almost motherly trill of greeting as she bend and fondly (and gently) tapped at her forehead with her beak.

Chester stood still and blinked at Gummy, clearly in awe that the totodile hadn't had any reaction to the bike ride. Komashi made her way back to her boy and brushed against his leg as she took her seat, loyal and ready for anything. Rona
blinked up at the two humans, still eating her berries.

Zap waved and immediately bounded from Jace's shoulder toward the girl, landing on the bike's handle, saying hello with a happy "piiiiiiii!"  

[Gwennythe]

"My family sent a coupon cuz it was my birthday and I picked this one!" Henrietta grinned, explaining why she had the bike. "Oh, man, I've ridden so much! I got to see some Swanna and stuff before they flew off but mostly I've seen the same pokémon I usually do, so far!"

She giggled as Dawn sat atop her head and pecked.
"Hey Dawn! Hey Zap!" She greeted the little Pichu too.

Gummy blinked at Chester.  

[Tori Honoo]

"It's your birthday!? Happy birthday!!!!!" he cheered, beaming. "Good pick!"

The same pokemon she usually saw... without any pause, he launched further into discussion. "I've decided... we gotta go to Kalos. Look at this!" he politely demanded, bending and digging out a crumpled up, xeroxed copy of a journal article from his bag. "They doing a ton of research on evolution and stuff! And there's a ton of awesome pokemon we gotta catch! I want to catch a Noivern! And you can ride your bike!"  

[Gwennythe]

"Yeah! I'm 16! So I can totally volunteer for the S.O. now too! Thanks! I really like it! It's yellow!" Well, that was... obvious; the bike was, indeed, yellow.

She blinked as Jace pulled something from his bag, trying to see what it was all about.
"Oh man, Noiverns -are- awesome...Evolution research, though? I kinda thought that was what all the professors did... You know, the guys who help out with starters and stuff? They've always got these cool labs on TV!"  

[Tori Honoo]

"It is yellow!" he agreed, laughing at Henrietta's obviousness. "Sixteen!? That's awesome! And yeah, you should totally do it! They're awesome." They'd be the people to bring down Team Rocket, and Rocket needed to be brought down. A shadow passed over his features at the thought, but quickly dissipated as Henrietta bounded toward the next topic with him.

"Yeah! They do! But look!" He paused to emphasize the crumpled up pamphlet. "They're studying the idea of evolving some pokemon beyond their final form! Maybe if we go there to catch pokemon, we'll see something even cooler! And maybe they might know why pokemon here are so different, too!"  

[Gwennythe]

"Aw! Yeah! That'd be really really cool! Like a -super- pokémon! Man, if we could catch a pokémon that could do /that/! How awesome would that be?! I bet it could totally train the others how to do it too! Man, I could get Gummy to be all super! And he's already totally strong!" Henrietta grinned.

Gummy began trying to chew on a blade of grass, while he stared straight ahead.  

[Tori Honoo]

"Yeah! Super Gummmyyy!!!!" he laughed, pointing triumphantly at the dazing totodile. "And what if I caught the dragon types, and they knew how to super evolve?! I could be super dragon master champion of the world!" His portrayed his eventual victory and title by throwing both hands upward to the skies, then standing tall, puffing his chest out, and setting his fists on his hips.

Chester sighed and shook his head fondly while Zap bounced back to the boy's shoulder and mimicked his actions.  

[Gwennythe]

Henrietta grinned, and giggled.
"Totally! But I'd totally be the fastest champion! Cuz I bet super pokémon are super fast! And I already got my bike! So you could be the super dragon guy! But I'd be the super fast champion!"  

[Tori Honoo]

He laughed as he dropped his arms back to his sides, looking at his pokemon and then Hen once more. "Yeah! Man, you should evolve fluffster into a jolteon! I mean, if she wants to do that. She'd be so fast!"