The fire crackled merrily as the young trainer and her pokemon dozed in the semi-darkness, curled up in heaps. Half-asleep, the young girl silently pondered her sleeping pokemon. They were a little bunch of misfits, she knew- but she loved them anyways.

The very first was Icefire the Blaziken- she was curled up in a ball of red feathers near the fire, twitching ever so slightly. She always twitched. It was something to do with her nervous system being messed up and giving her a tic or some theory like that. At least, that's what Nurse Joy had said. Who cares? The nervous twitch (as well as her nearly skitsophrensic personality) had prevented her from being chosen as a starter, and she had chosen her as a last choice. She loved her now more than she ever did- being forced to pick the twitchy little Torchic had been the best decision she had ever not made for herself.

The next was Deki, her Gardevoir- while most of her kind were as large as full-grown people, Deki was barely the size of a five year old human. She was currently sprawled out on the ground, using her trainer's backpack as a pillow. She smiled fondly at the tiny Gardevoir. She had been the second- or was it third? Pokemon she had caught. Or rather, adopted out of pity, with the slight hope of getting a contest pokemon out of her. Deki had surprised her- once she grew up and evolved, she became one of her toughest and most valued battlers. In their last gym battle, she had actually won the battle through perseverance- firing Shock Wave after Shock Wave at Juan's Kingdra. (A/N- Yes, I know Juan probably doesn't have a Kingdra, but I can't remember his last pokemon. Sue me.) Eventually they had triumphed, and she had given Deki a gift in her extreme thanks- a Soothe Bell, which now hung tied around her neck.

Curled up next to each other were her next two pokemon, Aerea the Absol and Shadowfang the Mightyena. Some people called her stupid to have two dark-types on her team, but she loved Absols for their versatility- and for the fact that they were so darn cool-looking. Aerea, however, was at an extreme disadvantage to most pokemon. She was completely blind. However, they had developed a type of 'Lock on' technique that more than made up for her blindness. She could hit any pokemon square in the face with a Thunder attack without missing a beat. Her enhanced senses of hearing and smell gave her an advantage over other pokemon who relied too much on their eyes. However, she had trouble with wide-sweeping attacks such as Blizzard, for she could never figure out just where to aim- she was working on finding the TM for Ice Beam, but so far having no luck.

Just beside her, his paw laid protectively over her back, her mate Shadowfang was sound asleep. Shadowfang was protective and possessive to a fault, quick to anger when his mate was threatened and nearly unstoppable when she was hurt. All too often, it ended with a badly injured pokemon and a barely-restrained, still furious Mightyena out for blood. She had caught him as a Poochyena and he was now one of her most trusted allies, knowing both Strength and Rock Smash- neither of her darklings really liked Dark Type moves. He shifted slightly in his sleep, murmuring as he pulled Aerea closer.

A squeaky snore came from the last member of their team, Neptura the Azumarill. The timid little water rabbit was cured up in a ball near the base of the tree, tiny bubbles escaping her mouth as she snored. She remembered the time she had fallen into the lake at Meteor Falls and Neptura had dived in after her, even though the water was no more than a foot deep. Both of them had ended up freezing cold and laughing, though Neptura was highly embarrassed about it nowadays. She rolled over in her sleep, snorting in a most unladylike way and nearly waking the rest of them up.

Their trainer leaned back in her sleeping bag and grinned- yes, they were a little gang of misfits, but she wouldn't trade them for the world.