Robin Tanaka x Selena Skye x Neil O'Connor
chapter 1-2 : Route 202
After successfully catching the wild Shinx, Selena felt like taking the time to get to know the newest member of her team a bit better. So, the girl released him from the Pokéball and quickly healed the small lion up with one of the Potions she had received from Rowan, something which helped the little Shinx perk right up. The demeanor that he had had before the catch was completely different than he was now. A happy smile stretched across the Shinx's face as he bounced over to Selena and pawed at her leg with glee.
"Well, you're a happy little guy..." the trainer said with a small smile, reaching down to pet the Shinx behind his ear. "I guess you really enjoyed that little battle we just had. Well, if you stick with us, I'm sure we'll have lots more along the way."
The Shinx seemed quite pleased with that, a happy little growl escaping his lips as he tried his best to look imposing before before relaxing once more. This earned the Shinx a small giggle from his trainer, who looked thoughtful at the small lion Pokémon.
"Let's see now... You need a name..." she thought aloud. It did not take Selena long to think of one, however. She smiled brightly at her new Pokémon. "I think... Richard is a good name for you."
The Shinx, now dubbed Richard, did not seem to mind the nickname one way or another. Instead, he merely bounced happily along as Selena began to lead both he and Lydia along the path of Route 202. With two Pokémon on her team, Selena suddenly felt a lot more confident in her progress along the route. Richard happily kept pace with Selena, while Lydia took a more casual pace, walking with her hands behind her head. The trio did not get far, before someone called out, gaining the girl's attention.
"Hey there! That's a pretty interesting pokémon you have. Mind if I ask what it is?"
The trainer turned, coming to see a shorter boy coming towards her with a Ralts resting atop his shoulder. Selena recognized him as one of the others from Sandgem Town that had stopped by Rowan's lab in the morning. She really could not place his name... but she was sure that was probably a minor detail that really was not worth sweating over.
"Chimchar," Selena answered quickly, glancing over her shoulder at the boy before continuing on her walk. "You know, you could've just scanned her with your dex to find out, though."
"I suppose I could have ... but then we wouldn't be talking would we?" Neil responded letting out a small chuckle. Neil proceeded to jog for a small bit and caught up with Selena who continued walking along the route. "And besides it'd be a little rude to ignore someone who you had met just this morning. I seen you in Rowan's lab, picking up your first pokémon. Guess it was a Chimchar then. I got myself a Ralts. Pretty nifty if you ask me" Neil added as he walked alongside Selena.
Selena seemed sharp or otherwise blunt. She didn't seem to feel like stopping to talk about her pokémon she received that morning and the fact that she just walked away after giving a somewhat to the point response made her all the more interesting. Of course Neil didn't pick up on these things, being stuck in the one town with minimal contact with other people made it difficult for him to pick up on little things like that.
Neil looked down and noticed that she had another pokémon with her, something which Neil had never seen before. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his pokédex. He pointed it down at the small pokémon and gave it a scan.
"Shinx, the flash pokémon. When Shinx flexes its muscles, it generates electricity. When sensing danger, its fur glistens."
Hmm, that's pretty cool. Never seen that pokémon before ... actually come to think of it I've hardly seen any pokémon at all. Man being locked away in that town really took its toll on me thought Neil letting out a small smile at his somewhat funny although somewhat depressing joke. If one could even call it a joke. He shook his head and placed the pokédex back into his pocket and looked back over at Selena.
"You must be a powerful trainer, or a lot more educated than me at least" Neil said as he laughed. "You've got a pretty awesome team with you here" he added smiling at Selena.
A small smirk graced Selena's lips. "Yeah, I know," she replied quickly, glancing back over at the boy from over her shoulder again. "It's all about picking and choosing the right Pokémon. A lot of these first few routes always seem to have pretty boring or useless ones. Just gotta manage to fish out the good ones from the garbage ones."
"Yeah I get what you mean, totally" replied Neil with a nervous laugh.
Garbage ones? Is she calling my Nidoran garbage? Nah probably not. She probably means ones that don't battle. That's how it works right? Neil questioned himself.
Who knows? There's a reason why I'm totally new to this he added almost letting out a small laugh.
"Sooo then. Where are planning to head to now? I've never traveled around these places before so I kinda have no idea where I'm headed. Crazy right? Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a map of this region either ... aw well the fun's all in discovering the unknown right?" Neil said as he walked alongside Selena trying to match the quick pace that she seemed to be walking at. The giant bag that he was lugging around, wasn't exactly helping.
"...Aren't you from Sinnoh?" Selena questioned, rolling her eyes at the boy's statement. She honestly found it a little hard to believe. How in the world could someone not even know what their own home region looks like. On top of that, how did she suddenly become the entertainment of this runt? Letting the thought roll out of her head, the girl sighed. "Jubilife City. It's at the north end of this route."
"Jubilife City huh? Might as well go there as well. See what's there you know? Man this is great! Just travelling the open roads, no parents or nothing. Just you and your pokémon" Neil said as he inhaled deeply and looked all around him. The route was so alive, pokémon and trainers everywhere. There was so much to see and do. Question was ... where to start?
"Well spoken," said a voice from nearby. The young trainer approached the duo with her trusty Piplup by her side, which was of course, Robin Tanaka, a young greenhorn pokémon trainer herself. "My apologizes for the intrusion you two, I'm not a spy or anything, nor a ghost for that matter," she said with a smile. "But yes, I must agree! Not only that, but the boundless mysteries that awaits us... it'll make a good novel for us, no? The many pokemon that awaits us, and what questions are around the corner, I hope to solve and learn about them all!"
"Damn, are they just coming out of the woodwork now?" Selena thought with a sigh, glancing over in the direction of the newest arrival.
"My name is Robin," she introduced. "This is Piplup down there! Full of enthusiasm, equipped with Ice Beaming action, yeah? Perfect for those hot summer days!"
Neil stood with a big grin on his face as he watched this total stranger engage and talk to the small duo which had formed. Neil readjusted the straps on his back pack and kneeled down on the ground before he pulled out his pokédex and gave Piplup a quick scan.
"Piplup, the penguin Pokémon. Because it is very proud, it hates accepting food from people. Its thick down guards it from cold."
Neil raised himself back up onto his feet and placed the pokédex back into his pocket. "Hey there Robin. I'm Neil and this is my pokémon Ralts. It's a Psychic/Fairy Pokémon. I haven't really had much experience with Ralts's fairy side but I've had a little with her psychic side." said Neil as he smiled at Robin and then proceeded to give his Ralts a gentle pat on the head.
"Neil and Robin, huh?" Selena replied, deciding to try and put some distance between herself and the two. "Well, nice meeting you both, but I'm in a bit of a hurry and all, so... I'll catch you later, okay?"
Selena waved them both off and started to make her way up the route once more. However, the trainer only got a few steps in when two, small children suddenly came running up towards her, Robin, and Neil. They were both young, probably no older than nine or ten at the most. One was a boy wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a blue t-shirt. He had a yellow baseball cap on his head that he wore backwards. The girl wore a red skirt and white t-shirt. A black ribbon kept her hair tied back into a ponytail. The facial features of both children were quite similar. Both of them sported a pair of dark, brown eyes and black hair, the boy's being cut short while the girl's was quite a bit longer. Both of them had freckles along their cheeks.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Jimmy?" the girl asked. "What if they just try to cheat us just for the reward."
"We have to try anDyways, Janet! Besides, you do want to see our Pokémon again, right?" the boy responded back. "Quit being such a baby and come on!"
The boy led the girl to three trainers, smiling weakly at them as he approached. The girl known as Janet kept a safe distance between the three teenagers and herself by hiding behind Jimmy. She kept a firm grip on the boy's had as they walked.
"Excuse me!" the boy called out, waving the three of them down. "You guys are trainers, right? Me and my sister could totally use some help with something!"
"What is it dears?" Robin asked. "Of course we'd be happy to help, correct?"
This little kids seemed to be clearly worried about something. Robin had already spoken for the group but consulted both Selena and Neil just to be sure. "I'm in. I'll help for sure" Neil said to the kids with a smile, reassuring them that he was as genuine as they come. "Selena?" Neil quizzed looking over at her.
"Am I attracting this kinda crap today or something? I have better things to do than play good Samaritan for these two brats..." Selena thought with a sigh. She glanced down at the two kids and then over towards Robin and Neil. "Well, these two should be more than enough to help you out, so... Good luck, yeah?"
The girl began to briskly walk past them again, only for the small girl to reach out and suddenly grab hold of Selena's jacket sleeve. "Please, ma'am! It's my Nidoran♀, Luna. I can't find her anywhere! And my brother's Nidoran♂, Apollo, is missing too! We'll give you a reward, but we're desperate! We need your help to find them, please!"
Did they just name their pokemon after gods? Robin thought after pondering. "Right then, we'll help you out. This sounds like a mystery to me, though! We'll track down your pokemon and bring them back to you, dears. That, or they might of been reported to a far away dimension, but, they'll most likely be here."
"Alright that settles it then. We'll find your pokémon kids ... and we'll bring them back. Don't you worry about that" Neil said with a smile, once more reassuring the kids that they weren't about to scam them. Neil picked up on Selena's behavior ever so slightly, especially with the fact that she pretty much told the kids that she has no interest in their lost pokémon. It didn't take much to notice Selena's unwillingness to help. Because of this Neil turned to Robin who seemed to be the much nicer of the two. "So then what's the plan Robin?"
Two pokemon... Nidoran and um, another Nidoran... Robin pondered. She got out a notepad, and wrote her thoughts in.
So far we have two pokemon, named after gods, in this place. A female pokemon and a male. I... can't really think of anymore than that, nor do I have a clue on where to do on, so, I guess it's time for me to sound reassuring!
She turned to Neil. "If only we had some sort of.. puppy pokemon. A puppy's nose is millions times stronger than the average person. Then we can pick up their scents! As good as Piplup is, it doesn't exactly smell much other than the scent of Magikarp." Piplup stuck out it's tongue towards Robin in secret disgust.
Selena slowly looked back towards Neil and Robin. She noticed that the female trainer was glancing over in her direction. In particular, she happened to be looking at her Shinx. Richard was busy sniffing at a nearby flower, before sneezing in surprise from the pollen. Selena sighed, rolling her eyes at this point. She could tell there was not going to be any way out of this situation without agreeing to help.
"Alright, alright already!" Selena snapped. "Fine, I'll help out... Just so long as I can actually get on with getting to Jubilife before next month..."
"Nooo, perish the thought!" Robin reassured with a smile, but with a bit of.. smugness. "I never wanted to interrupt the schedule of our new and supreme, 'Pokémon master' here! But sorry, the Growlithe I encountered ran away, so, I'm afraid you're our fifth best bet."
Selena glared in Robin's direction. "Shut up..."
Jimmy and Janet seemed oblivious to the discord between the two girls. Rather, they seemed excited that they had some sort of plan to help track down the two Nidoran.
Neil wasn't exactly paying much attention to what was going on at this point, instead his mind wandered and he started to think on his new pokémon which he had just caught.
A Nidoran! That's so awesome, and it was my first wild capture as well ... wait, a Nidoran?These kids are missing a Nidoran, two actually! All the more reason to help them out then so Neil shook his mind free and brought himself back into 'reality' so to speak.
"So what are we doing? Anyone have a plan yet?" quizzed Neil.
"Well, Robin said something about using Richard to help track them down," Selena replied, still giving said girl a rather dirty look. "So let's here your brilliant idea then."
Robin nodded. "Don't worry, it's quite simple," she said as she turned to the two Nidoran trainers. "Dears, do you have anything that your Nidoran have been wearing, or, something that your pokemon liked playing with? We'll need to borrow that for a quick second."
Janet looked thoughtful for a moment, before her eyes lit up. "Oh, yeah! We do have something like that!" She paused, taking her backpack off of her back before she knelt down to the ground and began to rummage through its contents. Her brown eyes widened as she smiled, pulling out a blue collar and a purple collar respectively. "These are the collars that our Nidoran wear. The purple one is Luna's and the blue one is Apollo's."
"We found them on the ground when we noticed they were both missing," Jimmy added on. "We're not sure how they managed to get out of them or why, but... it's all we've been able to find of them."
Neil paid close attention to the kids when they talked about the two collars which they still had. Neil decided to step forward and take the collars from the kids. The scent from the collars should hopefully lead them straight to the Nidorans.
"That's fine sweetheart, this is just what we needed," Robin nodded as Neil accepted the two collars. Indeed, they looked small enough to fit the two pokemon, so, if all goes well... then all should be good. At least, that's what she believes. She turned to Selena. "Alright, have your pokemon take a whiff of these. If all proceeds as planned, your own pokemon will lead right to them. If not, then, I suppose I'll be catching that Growlithe soon, after all, yes?"
"What do you mean IF?" Selena snapped. "I bet he could find his way to Snowpoint on his own before any of your Pokémon could find they're way out of a wet paperbag." The girl snapped the collars out of Neil's hand and bent down to Richard's level. She held the collars out for the Shinx, smiling at the little lion. "Alright, time for you to get to work. We need you to help us track down these runts' Nidoran. So go ahead and get a scent of these collars and start hunting, yeah?"
The tension between the two girls was escalating by the minute. Ralts who sat on Neil's shoulder turned inwards and let out a small cry and she attempted to place her head up against Neil's. Neil didn't know exactly what was wrong but it didn't take him long to remember the pokédex entry.
"Ralts is highly attuned to the emotions of people and pokémon. It hides if it senses hostility"
The hostility and tension between the two girls, however it was mainly Selena who was escalating things even further was scaring Ralts. Neil took a deep breath and patted Ralts on the head. "It's gonna be okay Ralts. It'll be over soon" he spoke softly.
Neil's view of Selena was dissipating almost every time she opened her mouth. The one thing that crossed the line in Neil's eyes was the fact that she called the two kids 'Runts'. That was just something you don't do ... ever. Neil closed his eyes and attempted to gather his thoughts.
First trainer I run into and she's a total ... better not say it actually. Maybe Ralts might hear me. Man she just has no respect for anyone. I'd hate to be her pokémon. Neil thought to himself.
Richard had managed to catch a good wiff of the two Nidoran by this point. The little Shinx let out a small growl, before suddenly turning and starting to bound further along the path of Rote 202. Selena smirked, glancing over at Robin before getting up to chase after him.
"See? Don't doubt the awesome that is Selena Skye or her Pokémon. Just leave it all to me and I'll have 'em back in no time!" she called as she ran behind the Shinx.
Robin can only give off a hearty chuckle as she waltzed right behind them. She was an interesting one, she'll give her that. But is confidence bounded by weighty words? Only time will tell.