Pepper

Pepper is Luke's Meganium, although as of recently, she had been spending time on Tracer's team. Born somewhere near the Lake of Rage in Johto, much of her early life is unknown. Somehow, though, she and her Chikorita siblings were left without parents to look after them, and they surely would have died had it not been for Wolf discovering them along with his Meganium Ivy. Not wanting to leave them to fend for themselves, Ivy convinced her trainer to stay and let her look after them, if only until they were able to look after themselves.

Thanks to her, Pepper was able to live long enough to one day stumble across a trainer called Luke and his Pokémon as they were investigating the Lake of Rage for sightings of a Red Gyarados. Upon stumbling across her, Luke jumped at the chance to obtain another Johto starter (a rare find in the wild) and added her to his team.

Quickly growing to become a strong supporter of the rest of the team, she assisted Luke in the last leg of his Johto journey as he finally thwarted Team Rocket for good, as well as challenging the Mahogany and Blackthorn Gyms. It didn't take her long to evolve into a Bayleef, and a Meganium soon after, cementing herself as the team's supporter and healer.

The vast majority of the time, Pepper is gentle and nurturing, essentially making herself the team's "mother figure." She spends most of her time worrying the over the other Pokémon in Luke's party, as well as Luke himself. Much to his chagrin. This goes doubly so for baby Pokémon, who Pepper will go to great lengths to care for, as she demonstrated with Cecil while on Tracer's team.

Despite her sweet and nurturing nature, woe betide anyone who would DARE to make Pepper angrily, the easiest way being to threaten a team member or baby Pokémon around her. If caught doing either, she would not hesitate to threaten you with physical injury to get you to stop, a threat she would not hesitate to follow through on.

While she gets on well with most Pokémon, there are two notable exceptions to this rule. The first being Rebecca, Jane's Seprerior, who after saying a few choice words about how she regretted having her daughter, Ren, she threatened to strangle her with her Vine Whip attack, only managing to calm down when Lake managed to convince Rebbeca to ask her to act as godmother.

The second exception is Lardna, who's rough personality and simple-mindedness started to grate on her nerves soon after joining Tracer's team. After Cecil hatched, they even started to compete with each other over who got to take care of him, Pepper considering her to be a bad influence on the young Zorua.

Battle Style

In contrast to her sweet and caring nurture, Pepper is no slouch when it comes to batting. While she mainly sticks to healing or supportive moves, she won't hesitate to throw a Body Slam or Energy Ball your way if push comes to shove. Underestimating her would almost certainly be a poor choice for any opponent.

Known Moves

• Aromatherapy, Energy Ball, Frenzy Plant, Solarbeam, Synthesis, Vine Whip
• Body Slam, Protect, Safeguard, Substitute
• Toxic
• Light Screen, Reflect

Achievements

• Beat the Johto League with the rest of Luke's Team, earning her a place in the Hall of Fame.
• Battled against Ho-Oh during Luke's Johto journey, lasting the shortest time out of all the team, due to her weaknesses.
• Has battled against Red and won. TWICE.
• Won several battles in the Gold Conference with Luke, before their loss to Tagg.
• Helped thwart PEFEDoS and later, Corrn during PMD-R.