Three Blind Mice

"Stop pulling my arm, you're hurting me"

Mark realized his mistake and apologized, " Sorry, I got a little carried away hehe"

Even though he had rushed up with his sister, he didn't immediately choose, and instead asked, "Do you think we should pick a rattata like mom used to have? "

Ashley nodded, "I think so… since we used to take care of one… "

Noah was the third one up, and he went straight to testing something, he wanted to know if he could infer any information by looking at, or perhaps touching the pokeballs, but he clicked his tongue in disappointment when nothing changed.

When Mark saw Noah holding a caterpie's pokeball, he then whispered in Noah's ear, "We should listen to what that man said, I don't think caterpie is a good idea."

"I know" Putting the ball back, he stepped back to think for a moment to allow the two others behind him access to the cart.

(I don't really know how best to train these pokemon, but picking rashly would be a mistake, if I were to eliminate caterpie and weedle from the list, then that leaves rattata, spearow, and pidgey. I have no particularly useful knowledge about which I can train the best over the others… so what is best?)

Mark tapped Noah on the shoulder, Noah turned to see Marks' friendly smile, "Me and Ashley are choosing rattata, we used to help care for our mother's rattata a long time ago, so if you choose one, we can teach you what we know."

Noah nodded, seemingly making up his mind, 'If this were a game, I would likely pick pidgey, as it has two evolutions, but as far as I know, rattata is likely stronger off the bat, it's twice as heavy, it doesn't have the same hollow bones as a bird pokemon would, and this is about getting through the test. Once I can find a pokemon with good potential, then I can always catch something new.'

With Mark and Ashley in the lead, they then left the building while the remaining two kids seemed to still be deciding.

Standing by the arena, Mark gripped the back of the pokeball, sliding his index finger into the looped knotted wire on the back with much excitement, "Well here goes nothing, Go Rattata!" then he tossed the ball, and upon releasing the creature, the ball snapped back to his hand like yoyo.

Noah stared at the creature, and each second doing so allowed him to glean more information.

______________________________________

Rattata:

Type: Normal

Category: Mouse Pokemon

Gender: Male

Nature: Adamant

Abilities: Guts(Grows stronger while statused)

Holdings:

Level: 3/25 (beginner stage)

Exp: 0/30

Sublevels: 0/25

Potential: 1.9x (Very low)

Health: 5/5

Hunger: 5/5

______________________________________

Noah rubbed his forehead, '1.9x potential seems pretty good... despite apparently being 'very low'

With Ashley then releasing her own, he quickly deduced it as well,

______________________________________

Rattata:

Type: Normal

Category: Mouse Pokemon

Gender: Male

Nature: Brave

Abilities: Run Away(Has an uncanny knack for slipping out of binds)

Holdings:

Level: 3/25 (beginner stage)

Exp: 0/30

Sublevels: 0/25

Potential: 1x(Very low)

Health: 5/5

Hunger: 5/5

______________________________________

Seeing the urging eyes of the two children, he threw out his own pokeball, and the contents were then released in a red flash.

Naturally, he spent some seconds deducing his own pokemon to find out what he would be working with

______________________________________

Rattata:

Type: Normal

Category: Mouse Pokemon

Gender: Male

Nature: Bashful

Abilities: Run Away(Has an uncanny knack for slipping out of binds)

Holdings:

Level: 3/25 (beginner stage)

Exp: 0/30

Sublevels: 0/25

Potential: 0.7x(Extreamly low)

Health: 5/5

Hunger: 5/5

______________________________________

Noah wanted to curse, and could only shake his head, ' It looks like I've found a new tier of bad... Extremely low? just what kind of luck is this!"

"Hi Rattata, I"m Ashley, I'm your trainer and I'm so happy to meet you!" She hugged her rattata and brought it into her arms, and it didn't resist.

Meanwhile, Mark was already petting his and smiling from ear to ear.

Noah looked down at his own while trying to be friendly, but his smile was stiff, he bent low offering a hand," Hello there, I'm your trainer, I hope we can work well together."

However, the Rattata looked at him with obvious reluctance in its eyes.

Looking over to Ashley, who was laughing when her Ratatta licked her face, he turned to his own Ratatta again, "Er, do you want a hug?"

The Ratatta shook its head, making Noah sigh, "I didn't think so."

He was now beginning to think that perhaps nature was in play, maybe her Rattata being brave allowed Ashley to hug her Rattata upon their first meeting, while his own Rattata's bashful nature made it less inclined for affection.

.

After twenty minutes, all the kids were outside, with almost all of them having released their pokemon.

A Few minutes later, the scarred man stomped outside, and stood before the recruits, "I WANT SILENCE"

The children stopped chatting or playing with their pokemon and now all eyes were on the man, "Your first test is going to begin, and it will last three weeks counting today. Here's what you are going to do, you are to grab one, and only one of these travel bags, and then you will go out into the forest with your pokemon. You will be given some basic supplies, but you will acquire your own food, if you starve then don't expect any from me because you won't get it. Now, your water won't last more than a few days, but you can find some if you travel in a straight line in any one direction for a full day, but don't cross the lake if you value your life.

Fear could be seen in the children's eyes as they quickly began looking for those that were in their group, all in an attempt to ease their fears.

The man continued, uncaring about the small panic his words may have caused, "Inside the bags you will find a manual, this manual contains knowledge on the standard ways to raise one of the five pokemon provided to you, as well as information on the pokemon found in this area, and how to prepare them, with that said, fighting among your pokemon is allowed, but murder or crippling is not, theft of the supplies provided by us, or damaging of equipment or tents in another recruits bag is also strictly prohibited. You are also not allowed to tame other pokemon, and you will use what was given to you."

He then thought for a moment and continued, "A word of advice, if you travel in large groups you will find it harder to gather enough food, and the berries in this forest are poisonous to humans, this means you must hunt wild pokemon or you will starve. This island is surrounded by a lake, but you are not allowed to cross it."

He then smirked at the large cluster of kids. " Another thing, while in a pokeball, your pokemon will need to eat ten times less, but training requires a lot of food, and if you can't train it adequately in the next three weeks, then you will still fail the next test. Groups of two or three are ideal, but you can choose to ignore me, and see how far that gets you."

The next words sent a shiver down the spines of many, "We at Team Rocket value compliance and loyalty over all else, and know this, during the test we are always watching you, and if you underestimate the ability of Team Rocket and disobey, either by breaking a rule or some other way, then nothing in this world will save you."

With a dramatic pause, the man spoke one last time, "After three weeks we will come to get you and bring you back, Now GO!"

He then walked into the large house and closed the door, clearly unwilling to answer any questions.

The children were now all alone.

During this time, Noah had inspected the others and found only three of the children chose a weedle, none picked a caterpie, while the rest chose mainly Rattatas, but there were still Spearows and Pidgeys.

Seeing Noah spaced out in thought, Mark pushed one of the large bags into Noah's hands, which he took with effort.

It was heavy for his size, Mark remarked, "Seems like we were right to wait, the other groups are already splitting up."

It could be seen that the more excitable kids had already sprinted off into the forest with their pokemon as if it were a race, but they never went off alone, while others continued to form new smaller teams before setting off.

Noah was different from the majority and thought running off into the forest at this very moment was not the correct call.

Pulling his travel bag open, Nah scrutinized it over, thinking about how best to use his supplies, and in what way.

In his bag, he found there were five small objects labeled potion, and one called antidote, apparently each potion contained three doses, and if you sprayed it on a pokemon's injury, the pokemon would be able to direct its own elemental energy to heal the wound, which was similar to using a move, however, doing so would drain the pokemon's stamina, making them hungry.

After fully taking inventory of what remained, he was already being urged by Mark, "Come on Noah, they are all probably way ahead of us by now!"

But the youngest boy only shook his head, "There's no rush, I want to read about what's in this forest so I can be prepared, I would also like to read the manual on Rattata."

Mark slumped down feeling helpless, all the others had already left, and their excitement had infected him as well, he wanted to run off with his sister and battle pokemon in the forest, but he didn't want to leave Noah behind, "This is going to take forever..."