It's been a couple days since Liberty turned 10 years old. She got her Pokémon license and picked up her starter Pokémon; a Cubone named Relic. With a smile on her face, a readiness to explore the region, and an eagerness to learn what it means to be a Pokémon trainer, Liberty has started off towards the path with her two friends and their Pokémon.

(Those friends would be you, Chris and Will! :) Figure who you'll be and what Pokémon you start with.)

Jake also happens to be 10.  His starter pokemon is a vulpix named Joey.  He's not really into all the combat related stuff, but Joey sure is.  Believes that there's a world of damsels in need of rescuing or something.  Jake is more interested in technology.  His pokedex for example.  Which he's already hacked some.  It now doubles as an MP3 player!  Wooo!

  How come so many Pokedex lack information even starter pokemon anyways?

  Clearly fuzzy fire types are popular, because Joe ended up with a Growlithe named OH HEY WHAT'S THAT OVER THERE.

  Oh, it was our imagination.

  "Aren't rock and water gyms usually first thing?  Maybe we can take it easy unless our pals want to get right at it."

Liberty says, "I heard it's best not to even try a gym until you've gotten at least a couple dozen or more battles under your belt. Besides... water isn't a good idea to try out first thing for your fire types... right?"

"Yeah.  Prolly best to focus on capturing a couple pokemon of each type first thing.  Especially plant type if we're going up against a water gym first.  Problem is with fire types we might knock plant types out too easily."

  Max "This is what headbutts are for."  "...What about the rocks?"  "That depends if helmets are cheating."

  While Joe has a more casual 'eh, they fight if they feel like it' outlook on driving pokemon under his care into battle, Max will probably feel like it.

A wild bellsprout appears!

Bellsprout: "Alright, you bunch of wannabes! Let's see if you got what it takes!"

The bellsprout is hopping from side to side with it's leaves curled in a "dukes up" pose.

Liberty looks at the others. "...alright, so who goes first?"

Joey steps forward, putting himself in front of the others.

"Never fear, friends!  I shall defend thee from this foul villain!"

Jake skews his lips.  "No call for being rude, Joey..."

  "Maybe the bellsprout is just very enthusiastic?"  "Have Relic do it, they'll never suspect the non fire one of us."   It remains to be seen if Max is either good, or bad, at strategy.

Liberty shrugs. "Despite the saying "knock yourself out", don't. The object is to knock out your opponent."

Relic doesn't say anything. Then again, cubones aren't known to be talkative.

The bellsprout opens with a vine whip on Joey! "You'll find I'm not an easy foe, you cutesy internet icon!"

"Nor shalt thou find me without bite to my bark, fiend!"

Joey retaliates with a scratch attack!

"Cutesy internet icon?" Jake echoes, beginning to fiddle with his smart phone, "Oh right.  Firefox.  This one sure has fighting spirit.  But I thought we were trying to capture it, not knock it out.  So yeah, uh, keep doing what you're doing, Joey.  Uhm...  When am I supposed to throw the ball at it?"

  The random man on the street survey for internet icons happened to be Raikoo.  So of course Vulpix was their choice.  In other news, LOLCats is destroyed as collateral damage between Renamon and Krystal in an internet popularity battle.

  "When it looks like you are totally winning, but before it self destructs."  Do bellsprouts even have that move?...  Joe would assume yes there, even with a magikarp.

During the fight, just as the bellsprout is about to pass out, Liberty yells, "Now, Jake! Use the pokéball!"

Should he use it, the bellsprout gets captured!