Organized Trade: Hale and Sandy

[artmage]

“No.”
Said the brunette flatly as she pushed her sopping-wet hair out of her face with a look of clear disapproval upon her features. Summertime and rain was not something uncommon to this region nor was it something she would have minded had she been traveling on any one of the routes of Johto.

Hale however was not even outdoors, sprawled over a desk in the nearby Pokemon Center as she looked up to see the creature hovering above her which seemed to be made out of cumulus clouds and was wearing a childish pout on that baby-face.

Squall had made her thoughts on being traded away rather obvious to Hale in her own manner as she continued to hover over the annoyed brunette who was, in addition to being exhausted awaiting for her other comrades to come out from the healing rooms. The previous battle had taken a lot out of them and she had rushed to this establishment before things had gotten any worse.
Waiting was a painful process however, and looking through the list of mons she now owned, she had raised an eyebrow at the odd ball which appeared there that she knew nothing of..
Upon further examination, the thing appeared to be one of Rae’s cast-offs again—the girl had to stop sending her spares. It wasn’t as though she couldn’t catch her own, and for that matter, she had absolutely no idea what to do with such an odd animal.
She had taken Squall out to try and gage the creature’s behavior—it didn’t take her too long to figure out that the thing’s fighting style, more special than physical wouldn’t have a place on her team.

Going through a list of ads however—something caught her eye. A girl looking to give away her Machop and Hale had almost jumped at the deal. They had chatted online a while and she had initially agreed to give it away for free---something which Hale adamantly opposed to. You couldn’t get something for nothing.
When Hale mentioned a Castform however, the girl’s response seemed favorable, and here they were, with Squall on top of her, living up to that given name by creating an indoor thunderstorm out of pure spite.

“Knock it off. Bad cloud.”
Hale grunted as she gently swiped at the Castform, trying to shoo it away for a second as she wrung the rainwater out of her hair and wrapped her jacket closer around her form---the combination of cold water and air-conditioning was doing interesting things to her chest .

Damnit, wherever this Sandy was, she hoped the girl would show up soon before this bugger saw fit to completely flood the floors in a childish tantrum….

Castform
Name: Squall
Gender: Female
Level: 10
Attacks: Tackle, Water Gun, Ember, Powder Snow
Ability: Forecast
Nature/Personality: To be decided by trade owner.

[Kataya]

Sandy glanced around as she had finally made her way into town. It hadn’t been very easy getting here, since Munchy, who was now comfortably (for him anyway) sprawled across her shoulder, had manage to piss off a hoard of Ledyba, who had left them no choice but to fight their way out. Sandy cast a glance at her troublesome fire rat and shook her head.

“You know, from now on, no taunting Ledyba’s.” She commented, earning a less than enthusiastic response from her partner, who simply blew a bit of smoke from his nostrils and turned his dark crimson gaze away from her.

“Quilava Quila, Qui.” That one was just asking for trouble. Who drops out of nowhere like that? The Machop that was walking beside Sandy, snorted at the Quilava’s words.

“Machop, Machop Ma.” You just like to pick fights with anything that moves. Munchy growled and jumped from Sandy’s shoulder, coming to stand in front of the Machop and block his way.

“Quilava Quila Quilava!” Really now? If that’s true why don’t I attack you next? He snarled, the fire on his head and tail areas igniting. Though Kempi seemed to take this quite well, only shrugging him off.

“Machop Ma…” If you really want to make something of it… Sandy stood in between them at this point, picking up Munchy who instantly extinguished his flames in order to not burn her and set him on her shoulder.

“Come on guys cut it out already.” The blonde warned, glancing at each of them sternly. Both turned away, but knew they wouldn’t forget their current hate of each other. Sandy rushed them through the doors of the Pokemon Center, making a note of how late she was, she mentally cursed herself before looking around.

“Crap…I wonder if she left already…” She was looking for Hale, a girl she had talked to quite a few times about her Machop, Kempi. She really liked the young Machop, but keeping him on the same team as Munchy was a really bad idea in her opinion. The two had hated each other almost instantly, kind of like Berry and Scatter, and boy did she already have enough trouble with those two.

It was only then that she spotted a girl, around her age leaning over a desk with what seemed like an upset Castform looming over her , letting its apparent anger rain down on its trainer. Sandy cleared her throat and sighed.

“Excuse me, is your name Hale Callahan?” She questioned, thinking she must be who she was looking for, she was the only one in the entire room with a Castform.



Machop
Name: Kempi
Gender: Male
Level: 20
Moves: Karate Chop, Focus Energy, Low Sweep, Leer
Ability: No Guard
Nature/Personality: To be decided

[artmage]

Now completely soaked head to toe from the Castform’s relentless assault, Hale stood up and was on the verge of leaving for somewhere dryer---the looks that the nurses were giving her spoke well enough that they didn’t appreciate this cloud-thing’s thunderous tantrum and perhaps it was better for her to go somewhere else a little more secluded so she could talk to Squall about this whole situation without earning the ire of the medics.
When she heard her name spoken out loud however, Hale stopped in her tracks and turned around with her eyes narrowed suspiciously to see who it was addressing her. The girl she saw was around her age, give or take with a somewhat unkempt shock of blonde framing her elfin features and what looked to be a Quilava draped around her shoulders like a live muffler.

A small grin carved itself upon her chapped lips as she took note of the somewhat surly-looking Machop who was with the girl, occasionally trading death glances with the Quilava which she had seen far too often from her own team mates, and it made her wonder just how Faust for one was going to take news of this new addition to their team but that was a story for another time—preferably when he was awake, still strapped to the bed and with a cheeseburger by his side as a bribe so he wouldn’t try and bite her hand off for it.

“Sandy right? Yeah, yer’s lookin’ at the one and only.”
Said the girl with a smirk as she approached the newcomer with the cloud-thing still overcast above her, now showering her with snow instead as she sneezed involuntarily, no doubt catching a cold from the Castform’s weather-shifting antics.

Brushing off the snowflakes which had begin to accumulate on her head and shoulders, Hale shivered slightly as she extended a hand to Sandy in greeting and ignored the north wind Squall was attempting to blow into her ears.

“And this here is Squall. Squall, yer new missy. Be nice. Come on now…”

For a moment the Castform relentlessly blew winter winds over the brunette until she caught glimpse of the newcomer girl and immediately her mini-blizzard came to a halt. Her body began to warm up in a friendly manner as she drifted around Sandy, examining the girl from all angles and sniffing at that hair which seemed to shine like the sun.

Well, she was rather pretty. For a moment Squall was fearful that she was going to be given away to some boy. Perhaps this trade wouldn’t be such a bad idea---given, she and her tomboyish trainer didn’t get along as it was.

“Cast! Castfoooorrmm!”
The little cloud beast swirled around Sandy’s head with a wide grin, body glowing like a second sun as a rainbow sporadically shimmered around her as well due to the swift change from rain to shine.

Hale let out a sigh of relief as she felt the heat warming up her body as she stripped off her jacket to wring it clear of the remaining rainwater and snow as she approached the Machop and held out her knuckles in a brotherly greeting.

“This must be Kempi?”

[Kataya]

Sandy was surprised at the hostility that the Castform was giving Hale as the girl introduced herself. Sandy took the hand she had offered and shook it. She then learned from Hale that this was indeed the same Castform she had spoken to her about, and it’s name was Squall, she thought that this weather Pokemon was one of the cutest she had seen, and she seemed to brighten up as she hovered around her, changing from rain to shine, and Sandy reached out to pat her before turning to Hale.

“She is really cute, and healthy from what I see. I used to live by the Weather Center in Fortree city and I saw a lot of these little guys.” She explained she watched as Kempi responded well to Hale’s greeting, pounding his fist lightly against hers. She pat Munchy on the head before bending down to Kempi’s level.

“Yup, that’d be Kempi alright. He’s pretty tough from what I saw on the way over here.” She then removed a bread wrapped in plastic wrap from her bag, handing it to Kempi and earning a growl from Munchy.

“Relax Munch, we’ll get more. Here you go Kempi, some of mom’s bread to see you off.” She then stood up and brought out his Pokeball, handing it to Hale.

“He seemed eager to go with you, even before he met you, but I guess that does him a lot better than sitting around my mother’s house all day.” Sandy laughed a little as she watched Kempi wolf down the bread like it was nothing.

“Oh, and he sure loves to eat.” Sandy added to Hale, more of a warning than anything else.

[artmage]

She hadn’t expected a Pokemon to understand the significance of the gesture, but when the Machop made to reciprocate greeting, a grin snaked its way across her features as she thumped him on the back in a friendly manner.

“No shit. Looks like we’ll be getting’ on like a house on fire then eh, fella? Tough one is he?”
Hale crossed her arms as she examined the Machop who was greedily wolfing down the bread Sandy had given to him. His appetite reminded her of Faust who was often slave to his own stomach and she began to think of the many times these two would undoubtedly be rolling on the grimy floor of a Denny’s somewhere in fisticuffs over the last scrap of steak.
Yep. He was going to fit into the team perfectly.

“Good tae know. Been lookin’ fer a sparring partner and he fits the bill like a glove if I don’t say so meself. As fer food, oh don’t worry. He’ll have everything tae his heart’s content if he works fer it like everyone else does.”

With this she handed Squall’s Pokeball so Sandy as she took note of how happy the little cloud thing seemed to be with this new owner. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to contend with the weather-shifting tantrums anymore, and at the very least Sandy had been in company with these things and probably knew how to handle them better than she did.

“I haven’t gotten tae know Squall here all that well, but I’d say she’s a rather sensitive sorta girl. A gentle but firm hand is best fer her, and looks like she’s gotten a bit of a liking fer ye already.”
Said the girl as she then turned around to dig something out of her backpack for a moment. It turned out to be a small package she handed to the Machop which contained among other things a pair of black slacks, a red belt and what looked like the sort of gloves MMA fighters often wore to protect their fists when landing blows.

“Just a little welcomin’ present.”
Hale said with a wink as she bent down a little so she could look the Fighting-type in the face.

“Yer a fighter, high time ye look the part eh?”

Straightening herself up, she nodded at Sandy and Squall, waving a casual goodbye to the cloud-thing who didn’t seem to take much notice of her, instead continuing to fawn over her new owner.

“Figures. Be seein’ ye around then, Katayko?”
Hale extended her hand again to the girl before adding mischievously,

“Next time we meet, ye owe me a battle.”

[Kataya]

Sandy shook Hale’s hand again, smiling as her new Castform floated around her. When the girl mentioned a battle, Sandy nodded thoughtfully.

“Right, that would be awesome!” She looked down at Kempi and gave him a thumbs up before turning, waving goodbye to Hale one more time and dashing off. She had forgotten she left Berry and Scatter sitting outside, and only Ho-oh knew what damage they had done by now.


(OOC: well it's done, despite my crappy last post, pleasure doin' Business with you Art~)