Walking up on a Drilbur that seemed to be looking for a nice place to dig a comfy little hold for itself, Derek was quick to reach for a pokeball from his belt's holster and hurl it out towards their opponent. For a brief moment the pokemon stared at one another seemingly dumbfounded, but soon it became apparent to them both that it was time to do battle. Having selected his Scyther, Derek was quick to dish out orders for it to execute.

"Focus Energy, Valeria!" He shouted over the Drilbur, who had begun roaring to some extent before rotating rapidly and diving straight into the trainer's Scyther. The attack seemed to scuff Valeria up quite a bit, but she had proven reluctant to lose her footing. Seeing no real cause to worry, Derek resumed giving his pokemon advice for this battle consisting of neutral typing.

"Quick Attack!" The Scyther, both fond of and familiar with this ability, executed in a particularly swift manner. The Drilbur wouldn't be so lucky as to get away, as Valeria was exceedingly fast, especially when employing this move. Striking the pokemon in it's back as it tried to turn and run, Derek watched closely for it to get up and retaliate.

Propping itself up on shaky feet, the Drilbur turned and opted to charge the Scyther head on in order to deliver a nasty Scratch with it's claws. Scyther, who'd been waiting on Derek to give it a command, did not cower in such an event, and took the blow without a single sound being made. That was beyond the sound of Drilbur's steel claws grating against her sturdy exoskeleton.

"Alright, give it a taste of your Vacuum Wave to finish it off." Thrusting forward with one of it's bladed limbs, Valeria the Scyther sent forth a compressed wave of air that would make it's impact with the Drilbur directly in the torso. It appeared to be a critical hit, causing the Drilbur to fall down on the ground. It would not be receiving any kind of a reprieve today, Derek would make sure of that. However...

It didn't seem to be out for the count, using it's clawed hands to try and burrow underground. Scyther, feet firmly pressing against the ground to announce it's approach, began to back the Drilbur into a corner against a small curled mound in the earth. Turning around and making one last desperate lunge with it's claws for the trainer's Scyther, Derek called out to Valeria in hopes she'd be able to respond. "Evade and counter-attack with Quick Attack!" This had definitely worked out in their favor, the little Drilbur being struck down, and hard at that, without Valeria receiving even the smallest of scratches in-turn. Before Derek could get out any kind of congratulation to his pokemon, he had grabbed and thrown one of his three Safari balls towards the downed Drilbur in order to capture it.

As troublesome they'd been, she was still darn cute.

Derek noticed a pokemon up ahead and immediately made a B-line for it, hoping his Scyther would follow after him. However, upon closer inspection...perhaps it was the one making a B-line for him? It's moves were fierce yet elegant, putting on some sort of martial display as it neared the trainer and his pokemon. Realizing that it wanted to battle, Derek couldn't help but smile. "Alright. Let's oblige him."

Upon hearing this, the wild Mienfoo took a step back and deeply analyzed it's adversaries (via Detect), preparing to do it's utmost to avoid taking needless damage. Derek, on the other hand, knew his pokemon was going to need to beef itself up in order to take this guy down. He may have been little, but if his personality told Derek anything, it was that he couldn't risk pulling any punches.

"Focus Energy." He stated to the Scyther, who began to hone herself for the onslaught to come. Mienfoo, caught off-guard by their current lack of an offensive, decided to take initiative by moving closer to Pound on the Scyther. For once in all their time training together, she seemed to visibly retreat back several feet, coming closer to Derek's side rather than out in front of him. "That's alright, Valeria. Don't worry how hard he hits you, worry about how hard you are going to hit him back. Now, use Quick Attack!"

Making further displays of it's martial prowess, the Mienfoo had proven unable to react in time to evade the swift attack that Derek's Scyther had made. It seemed to cause considerable pain to the pokemon, though of course it was back to it's feet shortly after the slight tumble along the grass. It was a Fighting type pokemon, after all.

This time the Mienfoo seemed to be out for vengeance, striking a relaxed pose before taking in a deep breath and exhaling calmly. It appeared to be...meditating, was it? That was not good.

"Let's see how it likes your Vacuum Wave." Giving a sudden thrust of her dominant forelimb, the Scyther launched a pressurized mass of air towards the Mienfoo, who was too busy with the meditation to dodge. It struck him low on the body, almost in the gut, and ripped him from the ground up into the air. He fell down a ways off, the only signs of life being a subtle twitching to his one leg. It seemed to be a critical hit, unlike the previous Quick Attack.

Bringing one of the safari balls in-hand, Derek lobbed it towards the Mienfoo's currently motionless body and waited for one of two potential outcomes...

Taking the Mienfoo's Safari ball in hand, Derek placed it into his open jacket's pocket before reaching for another that would secure Valeria the Scyther as well. She'd done enough fighting for today and deserved a good rest after how good she did. Setting out further into the Safari Zone yet, as he still had one more device available to catch something, Derek was quick to walk in the direction of something that...well, he wasn't quite sure if it even was a pokemon.

The tentacles it sported were really odd, but his pokedex identified it as a pokemon, no doubt. Though he still couldn't help but get an eerie vibe coming from them. It didn't react like most pokemon normally did. It didn't make much of a sound, instead it turned towards the trainer slowly while it's tentacles began to wriggle and writhe, almost as if succumbing to spasms. "Man, you are creepy..."

Finally it began to move some, causing Derek to take a step back. He didn't even want to take time battling the thing, let alone capture it. "You stay right there. Don't follow...just stay, got it?" Turning around some other way, Derek began to quickly pace off into the distance in hopes of avoiding this pokemon and any others like it. Those tentacles, it's lack of normal vocalizations among other typical pokemon behaviorism's...it all just made the trainer shiver in the back of his mind. He didn't want that.

Instead Derek broke into a sprint, doing his absolute best to get to the other end of the Safari in hopes that there wouldn't be more of'em hanging around...

Derek moved so fast he'd almost ran straight into a pokemon, literally. Thankfully the Bronzor, as it happened to be, moved out of the way before the trainer's head could make contact with it's backside. Circling about, it seemed curious to Derek's intentions for rushing up on it, floating about in the air around him making noises. Derek knew a fair bit about them, though had yet to see one in person. With no real intention of simply passing it by without getting to see what it could do, he plucked the first pokeball holstered at his waist and clicked it open...

"Zeke, it's time to battle!" Announcing this for his Charmander, the Bronzor immediately knew what it was in for and took initiative straight away. Before the Charmander could get his footing on his way out of the device in a glow of red, the Bronzor charged him with a Heavy Slam.

His pokemon rolled back quite a ways, causing Derek to wonder if he'd chosen the wrong pokemon for the job. No way...now was their turn to return the favor!

"Flamethrower!" The wild Bronzor, seemingly proud of itself for causing the Charmander to go tumbling back, was not on it's guard when the fire erupted from the pokemon's maw and engulfed it's entire mass. Derek and Zeke could hear a distinct, almost distressed ringing sound coming from inside the flames. It then shot up in the air to rid itself of the pain.

However, it still seemed to be afflicted in some since...it must've been burned pretty badly. Further suggesting that theory was the fact the Bronzor didn't attack, and instead seemed to refortify it's Steel typing's defensive properties, boasting a new shiny coat with it's Iron Defense. Still, it wasn't enough to deter Derek from continuing on their offensive.

"Again." He stated, his Charmander lifting it's jaws wide open once more to let loose an identical streak of flames. The Bronzor simply allowed itself to withstand the attack, to Derek's confusion. Apparently it had an idea...not a very good one, but still, a plan was a plan. Shooting itself through the fiery blaze, the Bronzor used the attack to ensure it would hit whatever was on the end even though it could not see.

A second Heavy Slam collided with Charmander, who got pretty banged up, landing on his back just by Derek. Looking to his pokemon with worry taking over his features, the trainer almost jumped with glee when he saw Zeke struggling to get back up and in the fight. "I'm still counting on you, buddy."

The Charmander, with a fire burning in it's eyes and heart, released one final Flamethrower at the Bronzor. Even after boasting it's defense, the Steel type still could not withstand the heat Zeke was dishing out. After another series of high-pitches, almost scream-like noises coming from within the inferno, the Bronzor fell motionless to the ground...

"Nice job. You get to stay out of the pokeball awhile for that one. C'mon, let's see what else the Safari Zone's got to offer, shall we?" The Charmander nodded, following along at his trainer's side as they set out into a pleasant smelling patch of flowers and tall grass. Derek knew there was more.

Derek stopped marching when a Chespin crossed his path, the Charmander, Zeke, at his side also taking notice of the new pokemon standing before them. Realizing it'd been spotted, the Chespin took a stance and gestured with it's dominant hand in a manner that suggested them to 'bring it', just like in the movies. Derek couldn't help but smile some, looking down to his pokemon companion with an expression that suggested Zeke could do his thing.

An identical stream of fire propelled forward from his mouth as it opened, engulfing the Chespin where it stood and singeing the grass on all of it's immediate sides. Furious with being attacked, it launched a volley of Pin Missiles in retaliation, Derek taking a step back from his pokemon to avoid being struck. Apparently this Chespin was a bit reckless, or just didn't care for the well-being of most, if not any humans.

Zeke watched as it's adversary rolled off to the side to put out any potential burning of his leafy body that'd caught on fire, transitioning into a tightly bound ball as he began to rotate and pick up momentum. All of which was being done while headed in the Charmander's direction.

"Smokescreen!" Zeke took his trainer's advice promptly, releasing a dense cloud-like fog in front of him, where the Chespin had been approaching. When it was engulfed by the smoke, Derek's Charmander, Zeke, made a large leap out of the way from where he originally was. When the Chespin emerged, it was unable to account for this, and ultimately missed. As it came to a halt and began to...unfold itself, was it? That was when Derek ordered another attack.

"Hit it while it can't roll away, quickly!" With another mass of fire overtaking the Chespin, it couldn't do much but struggle as the will to resist left it's body. Derek could tell from here that it'd been burned pretty badly, but because he didn't quite want to capture it, the thing would just have to wait until it got better naturally. That, or the Safari workers would have to take it to the pokemon center, as Derek wasn't going to be the one to do so.

Instead he gestured to his pokemon to continue their way forward among the grassy field that smelled of pleasant flowers and the like, hoping to find more...

The trainer couldn't help but make a face when his eyes caught the silhouette of another Mienfoo not far ahead. His pokemon, having caught a glimpse of them, went straight into attack mode, but Derek wasn't having any of it. Chasing after and tugging the pokemon by it's tail, Derek explained why after putting a bit more distance between them and the wild pokemon. He didn't want it running them down.

"I already fought and captured one of those, Zeke. We've only got so much time in here, so I want to make sure to get the ticket's worth. They cost five-thousand dollars a pop, y'know."

They pokemon seemed to understand, or at least comply, as it wasn't quite yet able to count that high. Currency wasn't exactly a concept the pokemon could grasp, but his trainer's concern at least made enough sense to concur. "We'll find something else that you can fight, Zeke, don't you worry."

He only hoped it wouldn't be something too strong for the Charmander. It'd battled two pokemon already, and didn't seem to have a whole lot of spunk left. Perhaps Derek should have reconsidered what he just said, but they'd just have to wait and see. That was supposed to be the fun in all of this.