Chapter two
Ristel Dorff
< theme >
PART 1 - somebody was proud
Ristel didn't stop until he reached the brink of the forest. There he let his feet slow down until he reached a large tree. He leaned against it and panted, looking back. Pallet Town lay there, as cute and perfect as ever. The town was starting to wake up now. And he had left it. A breeze fluttered through his hair as he stood on the hill looking out. He had done it. He felt the pokéball in his pocket. And he had a pokémon.
After catching his breath for a minute, he started walking away from Pallet Town. He knew that a bigger city lay to the north. He and his mother had been there sometimes to shop things that couldn't be bought in Pallet. He knew the way there. They usually went by bike... darn it! Why hadn't he brought his bicycle? Well... he couldn't go back now. And not having a bicycle meant one less thing to think about. It was probably for the best.
He held the pokéball in his hand. It was so special.
"Vulpix," he said.
Something happened. The pokéball started shuddering. Then it sprung open in his hand. He gasped as an energy beam came out and formed into a creature at his feet.
"Vuul!" it said, looking up at him. It was a marvelous little red fox with... six tails. She looked so... beautiful for being such a small creature.
"Vulpix?" Ristel said with a breath.
"Vulpix," the fox responded.
"Extraordinary." He started walking around it, which clearly made Vulpix a bit uneasy.
"I'm sorry!" he said when he noticed that. "It's just that... it's been a long time since I saw a pokémon. Come here."
He bent down and held forth a hand. The Vulpix seemed to raise an eyebrow and didn't really believe him.
"Come on, I want you no harm," Ristel said, smiling warmly. How could anyone ever want to harm such a cute figure?
Vulpix seemed to give up and closed in on the sitting boy. She smelled his hand softly and then looked up into his eyes. He smiled, anxiously. What if she didn't like him? But she finally nuzzled into his hand and said: "Vuuul."
"Oh! You like me! I like you too!" Ristel was almost overwhelmed by this, and quite proud. So far so good. Now, about pokémon training.
"Vulpix, have you ever battled before?"
The pokémon seemed instantly angry and stepped back a little bit. "Oh, so you don't like to battle?"
Vulpix nodded. She understood his words, at least.
"But don't pokémon usually battle in the wild too?" Vulpix looked even angrier. "Well, I understand that... not as they do when humans command them but..."
Something suddenly rustled in a bush. Out from it, a blue pokémon that resembled a lion cub jumped. It didn't seem to spot the boy and the fox on the road. Rather it was chasing a big leaf that tumbled around in the wind. The cub jumped to catch it with his paws and managed to imitade a Take Down attack. When he had captured the big leaf under his claws, he suddenly sent out an electric discharge at it. A very tiny one, but the cub seemed content by his deeds and started to chew on the leaf. Apparently, it didn't taste very good, for he spat it out almost immediately.
Then, he noticed the other two. Ristel and Vulpix had been staring, blinking, at the childish pokémon's endeavors.
Now the lion didn't seem to know what to do at first. But then it got up and growled at Vulpix.
He clearly liked to battle.
"Vulpix, it seems like you've gotten your first opponent for free," Ristel said, a bit anxious again but strangely excited. He had heard about pokémon battling from his father. Surely he could do it. If only his pokémon cooperated...
"Vul," the fox said, looking away. She had no intention of following orders, apparently.
But the lion cub stormed forward straight at Vulpix.
"It's going to attack you, watch out!" Ristel said. Vulpix reacted too late and got struck by the Tackle. It angered her, and she retaliated by herself with an Ember.
The embers weren't well aimed, but some struck the lion cub and made it squeal a little. But it didn't beat it down. The cub shot forward again, but this time Vulpix jumped away in time. Then she wiggled her tail in a way that even made Ristel hypnotised in a strange way. Before he or the lion could react again, Vulpix shot embers at the lion.
The lion were obviously scared by the fiery attack, because it suddenly ran back... to Ristel! It hid behind his legs.
"Wait..." Ristel said and looked up to see Vulpix staring angrily at them. "This isn't how it's supposed to work! Vulpix, you're my pokémon, you should take my orders, shouldn't you? And I shouldn't protect a wild pokémon that... that I wanted to battle in the first place!"
Vulpix ignored his talking and blew out another Ember. Both Ristel and the lion had to jump away to dodge them.
When professor Cherry said the Vulpix was special, she didn't joke, Ristel found himself thinking. The lion growled back at Vulpix, standing by the boy's side.
Ristel suddenly thought of something. He took forth his pokédex and aimed it at the lion. "
Shinx," the voice from the machine said. There wasn't much more info, other than that it was an electric type.
"Shinx," Ristel said and the lion looked up at him, a bit confusedly. "So... you like to battle!"
"Shinx!" Shinx said eagerly.
"Oh boy," Ristel said, looking back at Vulpix a few meters away who was wagging her tail again... Ristel absentmindedly let his pokédex point in her direction. "
Tail Whip," the pokédex voice said, and some properties of the attack were stated on screen. "Whoa, that's an actual attack? And those embers... are of course an Ember attack!"
Almost as if to reply, Vulpix shot her embers at them again. "Stop that!" Ristel called out as he and the lion jumped aside and barely avoided the embers that scattered on the ground and burned up instead.
"Vulpix, return!" he said and held up her pokéball. A red lightbeam shot from it... but missed the pokémon! Now, Vulpix was the one to jump aside.
"But why?" Ristel asked her and himself and everything.
"Shinx!" a little voice came from below. Ristel looked down and saw the Shinx look at him determinedly and then nod towards the fox.
"You... what do you mean? Not... you're going to help me fight... Vulpix?"
Shinx growled happily and jumped up and down. Both he and Vulpix then got ready, looking like they would want nothing more than to crash into each other with the strongest tackle they could.
"Oh, boy... a wild pokémon wants to help me capture my own pokémon... how did I get myself into this mess? Is this what pokémon training is like?"
Vulpix used her Tail Whip again. Ristel felt an annoyance grow inside him. How dared she use attacks without him ordering her? Of course it could be useful now and then if she knew attacks on her own accord... but not all the time!
"Shinx, look away!" he said. "Look here!"
Instead of watching Vulpix tail and get fooled again, Shinx looked up at the sandy haired boy beside him. "That's right! Good boy!" Ristel said, and Shinx shone up. Somebody was proud of him!
Vulpix, however, wasn't happy about that. She roared with what little voice she had, and blew out embers at them once again. Ristel prepared himself. "Get ready to dodge, Shinx..." he said. Shinx watched the trainer. The boy seemed to know what he was doing... Shinx wanted to learn. In truth, Ristel had no idea of what he was doing. He followed a strange instinct that came from inside of him.
"Dodge, now!" the boy shouted, and both him and Shinx dove to the left to avoid the embers. Vulpix didn't give up, but took a breath to load up another round. "Run forward!" Ristel said and spurted towards Vulpix. Shinx followed happily. The lion cub thought this was really fun!
Vulpix was really angry and fired again. "Dodge right!" Ristel commanded, and did so. The blazing embers struck his left arm but didn't hurt much. Shinx was unscathed. They were close to Vulpix now, and she seemed to suddenly realize that. She began to turn around to escape.
"Tackle, now!" Ristel shouted and lounged forwards to block Vulpix' path. Shinx roared (a tiny Shinx-roar) and jumped straight into the fox. Vulpix was hit head on and knocked out cold. Shinx landed and stood up still.
Ristel caught his breath. What... "What just happened?" he asked himself. Had he just battled his own pokémon with a wild one?
Shinx jumped up and down in happiness. It apparently loved battling. At least when Ristel told him what to do.
What a... different pokémon, Ristel thought.
Nothing like Vulpix.
He look at the sad, red pool of fur on the ground. "How can I make you obey me?" he asked it, scratching his head, though the was sure she couldn't hear him right now. He sent her back into her pokéball with a flash of red light. The he looked at Shinx, who looked back up at him expectantly.
"Don't... don't you have a pride who will miss you?" he asked the little lion.
Shinx suddenly seemed to stop smiling and think for a while. Then it shook its head. Ristel was a bit surprised. He wondered if anything had happened... or if Shinx simply didn't want to go back. Could that mean...?
"Do you want to come with me instead? We make a pretty good team, obviously. I mean... we beat... my own pokémon. Hmpf."
Shinx leaned his head a bit and seemed to think about it. Ristel took off his bag and rummaged it for a while before finding one of the empty pokéballs that professor Cherry had given him. He sat down and held it out towards the Shinx. What happened next was up to the pokémon. "If you want to be my pokémon, just touch the ball," Ristel said. He hoped that Shinx would. Together, they might just find out why Vulpix was acting like she was... and change it.
((OOC: Actually it's not up to Shinx, it's up to Pony ;D I went for a different - and more anime-like - style of capturing. Hope that's ok, I will catch pokémon by battling them most of the time later on... :3
Uh.. and I hope Vulpix can still get some exp, lol. Since she battled quite a lot xD /askingformuch))