(Reboot) Pokemon: Beyond the Tall Grass

"Great!" the teen shouted triumphantly.  "I'll be right back, but work your mastermind magic Cerise, and think of a back up plan just in case they're not very into my kind of music!"

In that instance, he waited until a few Mareep passed before darting off back to the barn.  On his way, he tripped over himself, almost landing in some messy "fertilizer".  He picked himself up, mess-free and blushing, and watched his step from that moment on.   Once he was back in the barn, he headed over to his guitar case and began to take out its contents.  It was then that he heard voices from above on the upper level of the barn.  Were Catia and Yuno still up there?  What were they talking about?  Would it be too nosy of him to listen in more carefully?

Instead of doing that and breaking their privacy, he brought up his voice loud enough for them to hear him before announcing, "Hey guys!  Cerise and I are herding some Pokemon on the field with the farmers' niece and nephew!  Open invitation if you want to join us!"

He then zipped up the guitarless case and began to walk out with his instrument in hand.

Catia's face turns completely red when Yuno kisses her on the lips, a bit stunned by the sudden motion. After a moment though she closed her eyes and returned the gesture before Yuno moved away and told her that she loved her. She smiled and nodded shakily.

"Y-yeah....you too..."

She said awkwardly before their conversation was broken up by Decoda. She grinned at him when she saw that he was going to play some music for the Mareep and she looked back at Yuno excitedly.

"You want to go with him? I could sing if you want!"

She asked her, looking around and noticing that the loft still needed to be setup for them tonight.

Yuno also looked around, seeing what Catia was seeing. She smiled and shook her head.

"You go on ahead. I'll finish up here!" She looked over the edge at Decoda and waved cheerily, jumping slightly as Wes let out a fairly loud sneeze in his sleep. "I hope he doesn't snore..."


The two teens looked to Cerise, questionable looks in their eyes.

"So if music doesn't work..."

"What's the backup plan?"

Catia gave a short giggle at Yuno's comment about Wes' sneeze before responding.

"Let's hope for the other's sake's actually. We're going to be up here!"

She states, smiling as she waved farewell to Yuno for the time being and jumped down onto a soft pile of hay in the barn. She brushed herself off afterwards and walked after Decoda, catching up to him as quickly as she could before greeting him with another cheery smile.

"Hey Decoda! Think we could take turns with the music? I have a new song I want to sing!"

She told him cheerfully, having been thinking up the lyrics to her new song that she'd promised to make in Kar's honor so long ago.

"Well, if it doesn't work..." Cerise paused, furrowing his brows in thought. He wasn't entirely sure, but such a situation would probably be played by ear if it came down to it. Forming a barrier of some kind to more forcibly make the herded Pokemon might work, but he had the feeling that such a tactic would end poorly. A few other possibilities began to take root before Cerise looked back up at the two teens, shaking his head. "No, I'm certain that music will have to work. I mean, I can't think of anything that doesn't like music! Decoda'll get the job done, just watch!"

Decoda blinked, stopping himself from leaving so he could turn around and respond to the eager girl.

"Sure, I wasn't planning on using my voice right away, so if you feel like singing to my strummin' go right ahead!" he told her with a smile.

He led them both out of the barn and warned her to watch her step so she wouldn't fall into a mess like he nearly did.  When they reached the others, he held up his guitar to show them that this was the instrument he was going to use, but quickly made time to introduce Catia to the relatives of the resident.

"Lucas, Nikki, this is Catia.  She's another member of our team," he affirmed, tuning his guitar so it would be fitting of something softer.  The idea was to get the Pokemon to cooperate, not to scare them away, so he planned on playing softer rock than his typical stuff.

"I hope our audience likes us," Decoda joked to Catia as he positioned his fingers on the strings.  "You ready?"

Catia thought about it for a moment before responding to Decoda's question.

"Actually....I've only ever heard you play once. Why don't you go first with your song and I'll sing after?"

She suggested, taking a seat nearby to listen to Decoda play. It wasn't that she was getting stage fright, more so that she still wasn't quite used to Decoda's music style.

He looked up at Catia before starting, halting his fingers as they nearly flicked the first two strings of the instrument.  Without much hesitation, he shrugged, before closing his eyes and just letting the music come to him.

"Right, I couldn't see you anywhere when I was preforming in Saffron with Marley.  Okay, no problem!  Let me know how you like it!" Decoda grinned as he began to strum out the first few plucks.  "Here's a song I picked up when I went to Lavender Town."

His aim was hypnotic, as he imagined a timely metronome inside his head; he wanted to get the electric Pokemon to come to them so the ranchers would have an easier time hoarding them.  He only hoped it would work.

At first, the fluffy pokemon paid no attention to Decoda as he tuned and practiced his guitar. Slowly, the hypnotic tune drifted through the wind. Black, visible musical notes vibrated from the guitar strings and began wrapping around the mareep. One by one, they began to follow Decoda and his music.

"I-It's actually working!" Nikki gasped, surprised. "Lead them over to that corral over there!" She pointed across the field to a corral, where Lucas was opening the gate.

Circling around the back of the herd to watch out for stragglers, Cerise tried as best as he could to help guide the Pokemon to their intended destination. The Pokemon were just as entranced by the music as Cerise was himself, which honestly wasn't that much of a surprise. His gaze drifted over to Catia, who Decoda had brought along. Was she going to be singing with Decoda? Those two had mentioned trying it before a few times, hadn't they?

(OOC: Sorry for the delay between my posts! I'm trying to stop posting so rapidly cuz there was a complaint about it. ^^; )

Catia smiled as she watched Decoda's visible musical notes entrance the Mareep and start herding them together into the designated corral. She had to admit, although it wasn't something she could really sing anything to, it was pretty neat. She walked along on the open side of the Mareep to make sure that they stayed in line as she looked over to Decoda.

"Keep playing! I'll sing after we're all done okay?"

She called over to him, keeping an eye on the herd of pokemon as they all lead them into the corral.

As Decoda played, and the others kept the sheep pokemon together, they managed to get them all into the corral and deadlock the gate.

"There! that should do it!" Lucas smiled, turning to the musician. "I'll go and tell our uncle that because of you, we were able to herd the mareep!" With that, the boy ran off.

"Thank you," Nikki bowed. "I appreciate the help. If there's anything that you all would need, let me know!"

When he was playing, Decoda kept to his mental metronome and slowly moved about the field, so as not to disrupt the melody with any dramatic movements he made.  He hummed along to the hypnotizing, yet sorrowful tune from that mysterious town he hadn't spent much time in...

As his friends told him how well the Mareep were listening and being herded inward, he slowed the pace of his playing.  Finally, when the farm kids announced that everyone was packed up, Decoda opened up his eyes and let go of the instrument's strings.

"Awesome!  I'm really glad I could 'play' such a part in helping you out!" he chuckled, a light flush of red decorating his cheeks.  He was happy to do this.  "Cerise, Catia, thanks for the guidance!  I don't think we need anything from you two, though... do we?"

Catia gave a smile and nodded to the two siblings for their thanks in her hand in the matter before she heard Decoda's question.  She smiled and a gave a bit of a nose-up gesture.

"If you still want me to sing for you then I need to be here.  Otherwise I'll just go and sing for Yuno.  I bet she'll have gotten lots of the loft cleaned up for us to sleep in tonight by now. But I can still stick around to sing if all of you want to listen."

She answered him smugly, teasing them with the prospect of her singing just for them.  She didn't really mean anything disrespectful when she teased like this of course.  It was just her way of saying that she enjoyed their company.

Lucas came walking back, cradling something that was covered in a blanket in his arms. He had a very happy expression on his face as he approached.

"So I explained to my uncle about what happened here, and he was really pleased to hear that you were really helpful!" he held the object out to Decoda and uncovered it; an egg! The top was a pale yellow, and the bottom was sky blue. "He wanted me to give you this~"

"Well, since you went out of your way to help us out, if you wanted to sing, I'll listen!" Decoda said to Catia, wiping his brow with a smile.  "You and Yuno are getting along pretty well, huh?"

When Lucas came back with the lovely colored elliptical object and handed it over to the guitarist, his eyes widened and jaw dropped.  What an incredible coincidence from his and Cerise's earlier conversation!

"What?!  What?!  N-No way!!" the teen grinned as he accepted the egg, a minor giggle escaping through his teeth.  "A Pokemon egg?!  For real?! I can't believe this!!"

He stuck his tongue out at Cerise playfully, then said, "Oh, teacher~"

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