Happy New Year!

Hello again, and Happy New Year from all of VHS. Had a good Christmas? Let me fill you in on some of the stuff that happened to us....

Big news first. Remember AGES ago, Don was given an egg? Well, it FINALLY hatched! It hadn't done a lot of travelling, so I guess it took a long time to get enough steps clocked, but Don is now the proud carer of a Riolu! Still only level 1, and a little nervous, but very happy, and keen to join in all the action. Ragnarok's really jealous that Don, who has no knowledge on Gen 4 at all has such a rare Pokémon, but he's happy for him too.
We were decorating the base for Christmas, with the sounds of Slade filling the air, when I heard another voice joining in. I wandered past Bulbasaur, using vines to lift Pichu so he could put the star on the tree, ducked under a loop of tinsel being swept towards a wall by Butterfree and Pidgey, stepped over Squirtle, spinning across the floor, polishing it with Bubble, with Vaporeon washing away the soap, caught a Bauble thrown by Maelstrom, and chucked it to Sammy, who helped Gloom hang it on the tree. I asked if they knew who was singing, but they both shrugged. Making it outside, I saw Doom and Rag decorating the front of the old shop. Glaceon and Snover were on the roof, sending burst after burst of snow into the air, with Icy Wind spreading it out across the city, covering Cambridge in a soft blanket of snow. Rag looked over at me, and jerked a head at the roof opposite. 'You can hear him from inside then?'
I peered up, and saw the Chatot that had evaded us months ago, perching on the edge of the roof, doing it's best to learn the words and tunes coming from inside. The song changed to 'I believe in Father Christmas' as I watched, and Chatot started trying to learn that one, ignoring us completely. I grinned, and raised my right arm, aiming my wrist.
'What ARE you doing?' Doom had paused, halfway through helping Dratini and Flareon stick a reindeer motif to the window.
'Trying to catch Chatot. Always thought they were cool. Ready Joltik?'
'Jolti!'
'Thunder wave!'
Chatot was hit by the thin tendril of electricity, and froze, one wing half raised, beak open in song. looking round for the source of the trouble, it focused on us, and tried it's best to swoop down towards us, it rocked a couple of few times, until it pitched over the edge and plummeted towards us.
'Spider web!'
It was pinned to the wall, and we then hit it with leech life. The paralysis wore off, and it struggled inside the web, cutting itself free with beak and talons. I needed harder hitting moves, and fast. Dratini jumped at Chatot, wrapping himself round, using, well, Wrap. Chatot used Mirror Move, hitting Dratini with leech life, and he let go in surprise, but had managed some damage. Chatot started to fly off, but Dratini frowned, and let out a cry. A twister whirled into being around Chatot, and any attempt by him to escape was stopped by another Spiderweb from Joltik. Chatot couldn't break free while caught in the Twister, and was thrown back at us, skidding to a stop at my feet. I dropped a Pokéball, and it sprang open, pulling Chatot in. It rocked a few times, but Chatot was caught! Yay!

We invited Brock over between Christmas and New Year, and he told us that Blackmage had been to the museum, and spoken to one of the fossil experts, so there's a good chance that whatever was hidden inside the fossil he 'won' (stole), he's woken it up now. I still say it looked like a broken Dome fossil, but whatever...

Kirlia's getting really worried about the future we saw. I keep pointing out we have a lot of time to sort it out, because in that Jonny had a Blissey, and Happiny shows no signs of evolving yet, and we've clearly met far more legendaries by then, but she still keeps going off to talk to this Moira person all about it. Ah well, we're doing what we can.

Maelstrom now has access to the vast number of TM's and HM's at the base, so Squirtle DOES now know Whirlpool! Could prove very useful in future.

That'll do for now, have fun, and I'll try and update again soon!