PAIGE *bulbagarden.net image removed*
The sand was soft between her toes, and made her skin glisten in the sunlight. The water was still too cold at this time of year to swim in, at least according to Paige. Trapinch seemed to agree, and simply buried himself in the sand pretty far away from the water's edge. He looked like a large, brown egg there in the sunshine, his eyes barely visible above the ground. Electrike was more antsy, still.
The electric dog had been barking at the water for many minutes now, after they had finished their meal. He hadn't seemed so aggressive before, so Paige wondered what was triggering him. Suddenly, she saw something glimmering in the water near a rock. Electrike growled and his hair stood on end all of a sudden.
She marched up to him, which seemed to cause something, or
somebody, to splash around in the water ahead.
"Who's there?" Paige called out, stopping when the sea wetted her soles.
For a few seconds, everything was silent and calm again. But then, a human shot up from the water, jumping up to sit on the rock. He was dressed in a wetsuit, wearing diver's goggles and snorkel, as well as a smile that made Paige feel uneasy.
"Relax," he said when he saw her reaction. "I was just swimming around and saw your little meal and thought you looked cute."
"You..." She had to take a moment to take in his words. "You were watching me eating with my pok?mon?"
"You looked like you were having a good time! And training so hard earlier too, you really deserved it."
"
Just how long have you been watching us?" Paige roared, putting her hands on her hips.
"What, you don't like being looked at? I think you do. Else you wouldn't walk around with that fancy hair color and necklaces, and keeping your pok?mon out in the open-"
"
Electrike, Thunder Wave!"
Electrike merely blinked and then seemed to almost shrug, before he with a bark sent out a shockwave that made the guy squeak loudly when it hit him. He tumbled off the rock, back into the water.
For a few seconds, not a sound or movement was heard again. A few seconds more. Then it hit her.
"Oh god, it might have paralyzed him, and he fell into the... Oh no!"
She hurriedly tossed aside her shirt and jeans, before she ran out into the water, diving down to where the guy had fallen, a few meters out. It wasn't more than a meter deep, luckily, and she found his body immediately. It was quite the effort to pull him up onto the beach, Electrike helping minimally by biting into his wetsuit and almost piercing it with his teeth.
It wasn't until she turned him over on his back that she realized he wasn't unconscious after all. He seemed to have been holding his breath underwater, and was just slightly pale now. He sure didn't look arrogant anymore though. Seeing that he seemed unharmed, Paige's concern disappeared as quickly as it had come.
"I hope you learned your lesson!" she snapped as she got up and picked her jeans up, regretting terribly that they were now sandy and her skin wet. This fueled her bad mood even more.
"I'm sorry," came, rather weakly, from the guy behind her. He was now sitting up, glancing nervously at the growling Electrike who seemed to take it upon himself to be a shield between the humans for now. "Let me lend you a dry towel? I have my bag at the other end of the beach, it's not far."
Paige grunted, but gestured for him to take the lead. She returned Trapinch to the pok?ball (he had been sleeping in the sand throughout the commotion) and picked her own bag up before she and her feline partner followed the strange diver through the sand. She made it very clear that if he as much as glanced at her legs now that she was pants-less, she would put him back underwater again.
He hadn't been lying, at least. His stuff sat neatly next to a bike, and she was given a big, almost warm towel to dry the water and sand off with. When she was finally dressed again, and the guy had also changed into a bright t-shirt, dark bomber jacket, black jeans and blue sneakers, he finally spoke up.
"I'm
sorry," he said. "I was just joking around, you know? You're a pretty girl, come on. And you seemed like a battler too; how could I
not want to watch you for a while?"
There was a faint smile on his face, but not quite as arrogant as earlier. Paige decided to relax a bit. After all, she had been the one to put
him in danger, while he had been pretty helpful and harmless so far. Not all human guys were douchebags. Some were completely fine... Like Damien.
"Fine. I'm Paige. Who are you?"
He seemed to really light up at her change in attitude. His face
did look a tad bit sleezy, she thought. But judging people by the looks was bad, she had been told her whole life. His black hair wasn't very long, the fringe combed back by his hand now, in its seawatery state. The skin was darker than hers, certainly more because of genes than a tan, and his brown eyes and ultra wide smile looked pretty much like a commercial.
Personality, not appearances, she reminded herself.
"I'm Joshua. I'm a battler too."
That finally caught her attention properly. "You are?"
"Well... I'd like to be. Others don't want me to. I couldn't just head over to Fuchsia and get a pok?mon from that professor, but I can battle in my free time. Well. When nobody sees, at least. So don't tell anybody in Rose Village! Alright?"
She narrowed her eyes and glanced at Electrike, who seemed to have grown bored with being wary and started casually scratching himself behind the ear instead.
"I'll keep your secret... If you battle us!"
"Ouch. I'm terrified of that little creature now. You sure you want to terrorize me like that? Could you use your other pok?mon instead, maybe?" he said, with a very pleading face.
"Sorry. I think Trapinch is sleeping, and I wouldn't pull him out of that just to force him to battle." While that was true, she also
would enjoy terrorizing him a bit more.
He didn't seem pleased at all, but reluctantly agreed and put some space between them.
"Okay buddy, let's show them what we've got. Major, go!"
What materialized on the 'battlefield' was a Poliwag. It looked very jolly, even when the electric dog stepped up in front of its trainer to be the water type's opponent. No sign of intimidation at all. In only a few moments, Paige found herself even more intrigue by the pok?mon than by its trainer.
The battle was surprisingly long. Still not actually
long, or particularly gruesome. But longer than Joshua seemed to have anticipated. He realized quickly that Electrike didn't know many electric moves, and started going out very offensively with Poliwag's Water Gun. Luckily, Electrike was rather quick at jumping aside, even after the tadpole used Water Sport to make the terrain even more bothersome for both Electrike and his trainer to run around in.
Electrike manage to use a Thunder Wave to paralyze the Poliwag in place, but just when it seemed like they might be able to tackle their way to victory, Poliwag used Hypnosis. The already overworked dog was too easily affected by it, and fell into a deep slumber immediately. Laughing at the turn, Joshua called out for a final Water Gun to properly knock the opponent out...
But Paige ran up and called out for it to end, before the attack could be delivered. Just like in the battle against Damien, she saw no reason to continue now. Her opponent would win without question, and she didn't want to expose her pok?mon to pain unnecessarily. She picked up the sleeping puppy and gave it a hug, even if he probably didn't notice it, before she returned him to his pok?ball.
"That was... different," Joshua commented, walking up to her. "You gave up."
"It was over," Paige shrugged.
"You don't even seem disappointed."
"Eh, we'll get stronger. This was great practice!"
Joshua snickered and shook his head. "That's not a great thinking for a good battler. You need to push and be daring in order to win. What if the Water Gun hadn't knocked Electrike out, but instead woken it up?"
Paige considered it for a moment, letting her gaze wander from the trainer to the blue pok?mon on the ground. It was looking up at her with an expectant smile. Smiling back, she bent down and patted its head. The skin was slimy but strangely warm against hers. The wind and involuntary dip into the ocean had cooled her down, and she realized she was actually shivering.
"Maybe next time, we'll push harder. Maybe," she simply said, standing back up. "Your pok?mon is really nice."
"Thank you! We've been buddies for a long time now."
"But he hasn't evolved?"
"Well... If he did, people would notice I was battling, wouldn't they?" Joshua said, twisting his hands a bit.
"I suppose. You don't have it easy, do you?"
"Haha, don't worry about me! What about you? You look super cold. Maybe we should get you to Rose Village! There's a pok?mon center where you can rest your Electrike up, too."
"Sounds like a plan!" Paige said.
She wasn't sure of this guy yet, but there wasn't really any point in holding a grudge or being suspicious for no good reason.
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#3 Battle a trainer
Electrike +3 >>> Lv 9