41. Meeting New People

[] Be friendly. Maybe they're nice people?

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"Hi there!" you call, waving as you approached the pair. "Got room for any more?"

The tamers glance at each other for a moment, then nod. "Sure!" the girl smiles. 

The two of them happily share their meal - half-stale sandwiches. A veritable mountain of them. It's not the best meal you've ever had, but at least they've got plenty to spare. Even your pokegirls are surprised to have a plate shoved into their hands. 

"Just eat," the boy grunts. "Our backpack's broke. Don't know what went wrong, but now all the food we packed is going bad."

"Toldja we should have had it checked out earlier," the girl chided. "But nooo..."

"Yeah, yeah," he said, waving off her concerns. "Anyway, I'm Brian, she's Betty, and we're from Port Bismal. Just started our journey a few months ago, though we haven't managed to get any badges just yet." 

"I'm Blue, from Charlesville Town. These are Ana and Lamina." you said, pointing towards each of your pokegirls as you introduced them. "I just started a few days ago, myself."

Betty smirked, standing up as she reached for the pokeball hanging on her belt. "Ooh, a newbie, eh? What say we-"

"No." Brian interrupted flatly. His sister turned, pouting at his interruption. 

"But Briaaan!"

"No, no, and no." he snapped. "We had an agreement, remember?"

She sighed, flopping back to the ground. "You never let me have any fun." 

Ignoring her antics, Brian turned back towards you. "Sorry about that. She has a habit of bullying weaker tamers." 

Beside you, Lamina bristled slightly, the Armsmistress' eyes narrowing at his words. "We are not weak." she spat. 

Brian rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. But no matter who wins, I'll be the one stuck cleaning up the mess. No thank you."

"What mess?" you asked. 

"I'm a fire specialist," Betty said, giving you a thumbs up. "My girls light up the battlefield like no one else!"

"And I'm a water specialist." Brian groaned. "Guess who has to stop the town from burning down every time someone gets too enthusiastic?"

"It was only once!" Betty protested.

"Once was more then enough," Brian replied. "Anyway, did you run into any of those dojo dorks on the way here? Last we heard, a couple of them were camping near that bridge down the road."

"Yeah, I saw them," you admitted. "They were a little... distracted, though. They let me go on without a fight."

"Lucky you," Betty groaned. "Most of those guys don't take 'no' for an answer."

"Apparently, their "sensei" is trying to set up his own gym." Brian said, "So he sent all his students out to "gain experience" by challenging people. It's a complete pain in the ass."

"Are they really strong?" you asked.

"Eh..." Betty waved her hand dismissively. "The ones with the gold belts are the seniors. They can be pretty tough, but the rest are..."

"They're shit." Brian said bluntly. "Poor discipline, poor training, only one or two girls under their command... and they're like goddamn Mosquitits, always swarming around when you just want to be left alone."

"Are they hurting people?" 

"Nah, but some of those guys are real assholes, you know?" Brian rolled his eyes. "All 'honor' this and 'justice' that. Makes me want to punch someone."

"They got some kind of quota thing," Betty explained. "If they don't manage to defeat enough tamers by the end of the month, they get expelled from their dojo. A couple of them are starting to get desperate, but no one's gotten hurt yet, so the police aren't willing to get involved."

"They always stick to the main road, so if you want to avoid them, just cut through the wilderness." Brian said. "That's what we were doing."

You stay and chat for a little while longer, but after a while you decide that you can't stay any longer. Your girls seem eager to go, with Lamina in particular looking impatient to continue. Before leaving, you make sure to swap contact numbers. While you doubt you'd run into them again soon, it'd be nice to fill up your contact list a bit more.

As you leave the camping area, you consider the news they'd given you. The dojo students you ran into earlier didn't seem that much of a problem, but if there were a whole bunch of them waiting around, things might get annoying. 

On the other hand, going off the main path had its own problems. Sure, you wouldn't have to deal with challengers, but there were ferals. Also, without Ana around, you were sure to get lost pretty quickly. 

In the end, you decide to...

[] Stick to the main paths. Surely these dojo students couldn't be that bad

[] Go off the beaten track. A bit riskier, but at least you won't have to deal with challengers

Right now, you have Ana and Lamina out. Do you want to swap them with anyone else? 

[] No. Keep them out.

[] Yes, I want... (Pick two of your pokegirls)