Sydney nodded and started clearing up after herself while Miko scurried back into her spot in the bag. Before long both girls were ready to go and set off, leaving the cafeteria and making their way outside of the building. Sydney was pretty pleased with herself, she'd managed to rope someone into going along with her even if she'd done it in a bit of a strange way. Hopefully Naomi proved trustworthy even if she did seem a little rough around the edges. But could Sydney really blame her? The girl hadn't exactly had the perfect breakfast experience.
"Where are you from, originally?" She asked. "Totodile is a Johto Pokemon mainly, right?"
A little conversation shouldn't irritate Naomi too much, and people always loved talking about themselves anyway right? It would help Sydney with her nerves at least, she'd never even battled a wild Pokemon before neve rmind
caught one. She hoped she wouldn't make a total fool of herself... suddenly she had images of throwing the pokeball and missing completely, smacking Naomi right in the face. No, there was no point psyching herself out too much. Either she'd be okay or she wouldn't. And she
would be okay. She had Miko with her and backup from another Trainer besides. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
"People here are just full of questions, aren't they...?" Naomi thought, glancing over at Sydney as she spoke.
She figured it was just something else to chalk up to the academic experience. Then again, maybe it has something to do with where one was brought up. Naomi's living experiences up to this point had both come from living in the big city, where one normally doesn't go out of their way to know everything about someone else. Regardless, it was a simple enough question. It probably wouldn't hurt to make a small bit banter on the way to... wherever it was they were heading.
"Something like that..." Naomi finally replied. "I lived a good amount of time in Celadon, but moved to Johto around the time I turned ten to live with my grandpops..."
The girl paused, the sound of some happy gurgling catching her attention. She glanced down, watching as her Totodile happily waddled ahead. His eyes were shining with excitement as he constantly looked all around in an attempt to see all this new scenery. The island was so different compared to Goldenrod, that Franky was completely in awe of it all. Naomi took a moment to pull out one of her cigarettes, lighting it and taking a small puff before she resumed her answer.
"I met Franky there... In Goldenrod City, to be exact," she explained. "He was left out to dry by his former trainer, so... I just sorta brought him home with me."
"Oh that's awful! The poor thing... but he seems really happy with you, so I guess it all worked out." Sydney said, her expression clearly sympathetic. "I can't imagine how anyone could ever abandon their Pokemon. I'd be lost without Miko."
Miko popped her head out of the bag hanging at Sydney's hip and gave a squeak to the affirmative, clearly agreeing that Sydney was totally dependent on her. The two girls and their Pokemon kept walking, making their way off campus and hitting the road that led to Oak Town. Sydney figured that halfway between the Academy and the town would be the best spot to venture off road and find some wild Pokemon. She made sure not to react when Naomi lit up her cigarette - she was used to people smoking and as much as she didn't like it she always tried not to make a fuss unless they were stuck in close quarters together. It was their life after all!
"I've never been outside Unova before," she admitted, "I'm from Castelia City and it's got it all. I wanted to travel but I knew my parents wouldn't be cool with it, so I'm really excited to be here. I want to make the most of it, you know?"
"Uh... yeah, I can see what ya mean..." Naomi responded, glancing away before she rolled her eyes.
"Having both of your parents around to care about your well-being must really be drag. Hooray for liberation..."
The girl could already feel her nerves tensing up, and they had barely been outside of the academy for more than ten or so minutes tops. Naomi was beginning to get tempted to simply break this whole expedition off, but the fact that she had decided to go along for the chance to add a Pokémon to her own arsenal was the only reason for why she didn't. She took another drag off of her cigarette, this one much longer than the original, before finally returning her attention to the conversation at hand.
"So... Is there something in particular you're looking for? Like a Pidgey or an Oddish?" Naomi questioned. Maybe if she could get some idea as to what Sydney was looking for, she could speed this hunt up a bit. Besides, considering the fact that she had Pachirisu as her first Pokémon... a rather cute and fluffy one at that. Naomi could feel her gaze gradually shifting to the Pokémon poking out of Sydney's bag. "I mean.... those seem like a good start to go formin' a team around an electric type..."
"I thought about a Grass type," Sydney answered, "but I think I'm going to be looking for a Bug Pokemon instead. Miko wouldn't be too great against Grass or Ground types and this could help with that a bit. Plus the Castelia City Gym is a Bug type gym so I kinda know a bit about them. Anyway, this is as good a place to go off the road as any. C'mon Miko, out you get." Miko climbed out of the bag and clambered down the side of her trainers leg.
"You ready Naomi? Anything you want me to keep an eye out for you while we're searching?"
"A flying-type," Naomi replied quickly, as she extinguished what was left of cigarette. She took a moment to put the remainder back in her pack so she could finish what was left of it for later. "Franky is pretty strong, but speed isn't his strong point. I need somethin' that can make up for that."
The Totodile in question waddled his way towards Sydney's Pachirisu. He offered Miko a quick grin, before turning his attention to the open space before them and carefully looking around. He wanted to be the one to help Naomi find what she was looking for. Besides that, there was a princess here! What sort of brave warrior would he be if he left her unprotected?!
"Alright. You watch the skies then, I'll keep my eyes closer to the ground." Sydney reached into her pocket and pulled out a scrunchie, reaching behind her head to tie her black and blue hair back into a loose tail. She took a deep breath and stepped off the road into the tall grass, her expressive eyes narrowed as she looked almost comically hard to try and spot a Pokemon. Miko ranged alongside her, bushy tail held high. Some Bug types would be close to the earth but most of them could be found near patches of wildflower or some trees and almost all of them were pretty damn small, so she was going to have to keep her eyes peeled to spot one.
"Sometimes Flying types circle around where Bug types congregate to try and swipe an easy meal, so if you see something like that we might be able to solve both our problems in one go. I'll let you know if it looks like anything is coming at us through the grass." It was a firm statement, shy of being bossy but not by a wide margin. She seemed to be taking the hunt seriously.
Franky on the other hand, kept his eyes peeled to the skies. It was going to be difficult fighting one so high up while he was so low to the ground. Naomi seemed to be thinking along the same thing. The brown-haired teenager frowned as she squinted up towards the sky, but except for the occasional passing clouds... There really wasn't much to see up there.
"There's gotta be a better way than this..." Naomi thought, crossing her arms in a huff. She paused for a moment, glancing down as she spotted some nearby rocks. Slowly, a small grin managed to crawl its way across her lips.
"Of course... I should just bring one out to us instead..."
Scooping up a hand full of rocks, Naomi motioned for Franky to follow close behind. The Totodile gave his trainer a curious look as she led him towards some nearby trees. Without even a moment for consideration, Naomi took some of the rocks and began to casually toss them in the direction of the tree branches one by one.
"What are you do-oh!" Sydney yelped as there was a chorus of squawks from the tree, a flock of wild Spearow enraged by the rock throwing bursting out and taking to the air. "Uh, well done, I guess? But that's a
lot of Spearow!"
The flock spent some time flapping about and screeching before they seemed to realize where the source of their disturbance had come from. Some of the Spearow decided it wasn't worth their time and went off in search of somewhere quieter to roost but four of them were too fired up to let the matter go. They moved as a unit and got into formation before divebombing towards the two girls and their Pokemon.
"Miko - Attract!" Sydney blurted out the first move that came into her head. Miko ran straight up the side of her Trainer and set herself on Sydney's head, briefly covering her face with her bushy tail before taking it away and blowing a kiss at one of the Spearow. An almost cartoon heart shot out from the kiss and exploded against one of the diving Spearow in a shower of pink dust. That one sharply veered off from the group and started circling Sydney and Miko, singing some sort of Spearow sonnet of affection. Sydney still had to hit the dirt though to avoid being swiped by the others, hitting the ground with a whoosh of exhaled breath while Miko clung onto her hair for dear life.
One of the Spearow swooped down angrily in the direction of Miko and Sydney. The bird Pokémon let out a loud, razor-sharp screech as its pointy beak closed in on the duo, only for a sudden jet of water to come crashing into the Spearow. The bird fell back from its attack, managing to catch and balance itself before it would have hit the ground from the surprise assault. The rest of the flock stopped in their assault, all eyes suddenly resting on the now drenched flying type, Naomi, and Franky.
The flock of Spearow seemed hesiitant for a moment, as if questioning just what they should do. One of their numbers, a slightly smaller than average Spearow, let out an angry screech and began to quickly charge towards Franky. However, before it managed to make it all the way over, the soaked member of the flock let out a very agressive squawk. The charging Spearow stopped dead in its tracks, its eyes locking with those of its wet cohort. The soggy bird Pokémon merely glared in the direction of the smaller flying-type, causing it to cower and fall back into the crowd of its fellow Spearow.
"Hmmm... Looks like this one is must be the ringleader..." Naomi mused, an excited smirk managing to take hold over the girl's lips. "I like that..."
"You could have shared your 'plan' with me you know," Sydney grumbled, getting back to her feet. The enamoured Spearow was still circling her and Miko, squawking sweet-nothings. "Miko, Iron Tail!"
The Pachirisu leapt off her Trainers head, a metal coating spreading across her large tail before she twisted in the air, smacking the Spearow right in the beak and sending it tumbling off into the grass. Miko landed nimbly on the ground and glanced to Franky. "I seem to be doing a lot of work here..." She squeaked.
"If there's a second half to this you might want to figure it out before we get pecked to death. Spearow aren't known for being very forgiving." At this point Sydney wasn't entirely convinced that Naomi wouldn't just catch a Spearow and go home, leaving her here without having caught anything for herself. She'd picked up on the other girls surly attitude but hadn't figured her for outright reckless.
"I don't really recall ever havin' one," Naomi replied bluntly. She pointed in the direction of the wet Spearow, who was currently having a staring competition with Franky. "If ya'd chill out for a bit and pay attention, you'd notice that that one right there seems to be the one of the flock that calls the shots… and for some reason, it seems like it wants to go one on one with Franky. So just… calm down and stop having a meltdown already."
Franky glanced over at Miko for a moment, a small blush working its way to his blue cheeks. "Um… Sorry about that," he babbled. "But… This Spearow looks really strong, and I totally wanna try battling her first! You understand, right?"
Before Miko would have had a chance to respond, the Spearow let out a rather loud screech and took off flying towards Franky. Naomi's eyes widened at the sound, quickly snapping her focus back to the battle at hand. The Spearow quickly flew over head of Franky and dove down, starting to peck at the water Pokémon with her sharp beak in rapid succession. Franky let out a pained grunt, quickly bringing his arms up to try and shield his face from the constant Peck attacks as best as he could.
"Franky, don't just sit there and take that! Pound that little featherbag with an Ice Punch!" Naomi shouted.
Franky quickly jumped back from the rapid assault of the Spearow, shooting the bird a rather toothy grin as his little first began to form a chilling air around it. As quickly as the little Totodile could, he slammed his frosty fist right into the face of the Spearow, causing the bird to squawk in pain from the chilling blow.
"A meltdown?" She flushed. "I'm not having a meltdown! Just... whatever..." She trailed off, not sure how to tell Naomi she was wrong without just proving she was right. "Miko, stay on guard in case the other two try to get involved. We're not going to break our word just because things have gone off the rails."
The other Spearow seemed like they were going to listen to what their leader had said, staying back and waiting to see how things played out. They were a naturally aggressive species of Pokemon though so Sydney wasn't about to take anything for granted.
Naomi didn't respond to Sydney's retort. Rather, she kept herself focused on the battle at hand. "Franky, follow up with a Scratch attack!"
Franky ran towards the Spearow, taking a swipe at the bird Pokémon with his claws. The Spearow was quick to counter, however. The Spearow's wing quickly began to shine with a metallic shimmer. The Spearow quickly slammed its wing into the Totodile's head, causing Franky to stagger back and wince in pain. Yet instead of being angry, Franky grinned happily. Clearly, he was having the time of his life in this little skirmish.
"Franky, go for another Scratch attack!" Naomi ordered. Once more, the Totodile ran towards the Spearow with his claws ready to swipe at the wild Pokémon. Just like before, the Spearow's wing began to shine with a metallic glow as she slammed her wing in Franky's direction once more. However unlike before, Franky managed to grab hold of the wing. Spearow's eyes widened in shock at this development as the wild Pokémon desperately tried to pry itself free from Franky's grasp. Naomi's confidence seemed to only grow however, as she quickly called out to Franky once more. "Now, Dragon Claw!"
Franky's claws on his left hand seemed to glow with a fierce aura as he leaned back and took a mighty swipe at the wild Spearow. The bird Pokémon let out a loud wail as Franky released his grip on its wing with the attack, sending the flying type staggering back and falling flat on its belly. The Spearow let out a weak groan of sorts as it tried to pick itself up off the ground, but could not manage to find the strength to do so. Without wasting another moment, Naomi grabbed a Poké Ball out of the bag she was carrying and launched it straight in the Spearow's direction. The ball smacked right into the downed bird, pulling it inside of the capsule-like device with a faint, red beam of light. The ball shook once... twice... and then one final time before coming to a complete stop. The Spearow had been caught!
With their leader being sucked into the Poke Ball its two cohorts panicked and quickly turned tail, flying away from the skirmish as quickly as they could. "Congratulations." Sydney said, mostly covering the bitterness she felt. "Next time you decide to aggravate a group of wild Pokemon either let me know or do it with someone else. That was incredibly dangerous - Spearow have been known to flock around a powerful Fearow and if one of those had turned up we'd have been in serious trouble."
She stalked through the grass in a huff with Miko scampering behind her, looking concerned for her Trainer. "And all that will have scared off any Pokemon even remotely close by, so I guess I'm empty handed. Oh, and don't tell me not to have a meltdown - I can handle myself fine when I actually know what's going on thank you very much!" She kicked the tree the Spearow had been roosting in, wincing afterwards. "Stupid first day. This sucks."
From a hollow in the tree a tiny Cutiefly floated out, disturbed by the noise and subsequent kick. It flew up into the air and started circling Sydney's blue highlighted hair, trying to figure out if it was some sort of odd flower. Sydney seemed to be too busy sulking to even notice.
"Look, it ain't my fault that you couldn't even move durin' all that. Besides, it was faster than stumbling around the middle of nowhere for hours like a couple of idiots..." Naomi retorted, scooping down to pick up her newly acquired Spearow. "So stop gettin' so bent out of shape... I said I'd help ya find your stupid bug, didn't I?"
As the two trainers bickered, Franky waddled his way over towards Miko. The Totodile gave a curious glance towards the Pachirisu, before babbling, "Should... should we do something to stop them...? If there are any other wild Pokémon around, they're gonna scare them off with all that yelling..."
"Couldn't move? Miko and I took one of them down actually, but you were obviously too worried about yourself to remember we were supposed to be looking out for each other. And do not, do
not call my Pokemon stupid. Even if I haven't caught them yet!"
"I don't know... maybe your Trainer will just apologize?" Miko answered.
The Cutiefly settled on Sydney's head, nestling into her hair. "If you want them to be quiet, I could murder them for you," it whispered down to the other Pokemon, "Then the only noise will be when we eat their corpses. Dibs on the eyeballs."
Franky's eyes widened at the sound of the voice. He quickly glanced around, trying to find the source of the voice. "Umm... Who... Who said that...?"
Meanwhile, both trainers seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact of the Cutiefly in Sydney's hair. Naomi in particular, seemed to have no sympathy showing for Sydney's plight. "Oh... My bad. I'm sorry I insulted somethin'
ya don't have."
"I did. Up here. I like the eyeballs best when they pop." The Cutiefly responded.
Miko looked around, finally spotting it. "Hey! Get off my Sydney!"
Sydney crossed her arms, staring at Naomi angrily. "Oh you're right, it would be like me insulting your good manners or ability to not be a jerk. When we're out of here I want a battle - a real one - and when I win you're going to apologise for being so awful."
"Like I really have the desire to waste my time on ya...? I mean, getting the chance to watch ya cry would be the best thing ever, but I have better things to do with my time than that." Naomi shot back.
Franky glanced up, his eyes quickly spotting something moving around in Sydney's hair as well. The Totodile wasted no time in waddling over towards the two trainers, tugging on Naomi's leg to try and get the girl's attention. Naomi glared down towards the Totodile, causing him to flinch back slightly. Still, Franky stayed still as he babbled and pointed up towards Sydney. Naomi turned her attention back to the girl in question, her eyes narrowing as she witnessed something moving around ever so slightly in her hair.
"...The hell..." Naomi muttered. "Do... Do ya actually have bugs
nestin' in your hair...?"
"Oh so you're too chicken to battle me because you know I have a type advantage? Really nice, that attitude will take you far! And a... what? What are you talking about?"
Miko quickly shot forward and started climbing Sydney, reaching her head in record time and hissing at the Cutiefly. The tiny bug took off and buzzed closer to the tree again.
"Wha- what IS that!?" Sydney screamed, frantically swatting at her hair in case any others were lurking there. "Are there more!? I've never even seen one of those before!"
Naomi watched as the bug quickly buzzed out of Sydney's hair before zipping towards the tree that she had assaulted with the rocks earlier. The older of the two girls narrowed her eyes, trying her best to point out the finer points of the bug from a distance. "I... I think it's a Cutiefly... My sister used to go on about them back home."
"Well you can actually do your part now, I guess. Miko, Quick Attack before it gets away!"
Miko squeaked and jumped off of Sydney, landing on the tree before bouncing off it to slam into the Cutiefly. It veered off course, circling back around to face the two girls and started buzzing at them angrily, sending out a gust of wind carrying pink sparkles. It was a strong Fairy Wind for such a small Pokemon, almost knocking Sydney off her feet and sending Miko tumbling backwards.
"Don't let up! Iron Tail!" Sydney shouted over the wind. Miko got back to her feet and coated her tail in metal, sprinting towards the Cutiefly and performing a backflip, effectively uppercutting the tiny bug and sending it shooting into the air.
"Oh shoot, oh shoot!" Sydney scrambled through her bag, pulling out a Poke Ball of her own and squinted skyward, trying to see where it had gone. She had the hand with the Pokeball up at an angle, trying to block the sun from getting into her eyes.
"...Ahhh it's too small, I can't see where it we-"
The Cutiefly fell back down, landing directly onto the Poke Ball Sydney was holding up and activating it. She nearly dropped it as it snapped open and sucked the mite inside, snapping shut again with an audible click. She stared at it dumbfounded while it started shaking around in her hand before finally giving another definite *click* and settling down.
"That was... somethin', alright..." Naomi replied, having watched the scene playout before her. Sydney's Pachirishu had handled herself fairly well. The trainer, on the other hand. It was almost comical watching her catch the wild Cutiefly. She paused, retrieving the cigarette she had started earlier and relit it, before resuming her critique of Sydney's achievment. "I thought ya were honestly gonna choke for a minute there."
"I... I caught it!" Sydney cheered, bursting out into peals of laughter and tackling Naomi in a forceful hug. "I can't believe we did it, that was awesome!" Apparently their previous feud was either forgiven or forgotten in the excitement of the moment. "A Pokemon each, what a day!"
Naomi's body seemed to tense up from the sudden and unexpected hug, the girl losing her cigarette in the grass in the process. A fierce blush managed to quickly run its way to her cheeks, but both her body language and the sudden rush of color managed to go unnoticed by Sydney. Eventually, the older trainer managed to regain her composure just enough to awkwardly pat Sydney on the back.
"Yeah... Pretty amazin'!" she replied, her enthusiasm a bit more phoned in than her fellow trainer's.
"Listen, listen, I'm sorry about before, I don't like not knowing what's going on but I guess it all worked out! Ohhhh, a Cutiefly!" She eventually broke the hug and turned to face Miko. "And you were amazing, that flip, I knew our practice would pay off!" The squirrel preened under the attention, clearly feeling she deserved it.
"But hey, we should head back and get our new catches to the Pokemon Center, right? Then I need to hit the books and learn everything I can about Cutiefly. They're definitely not from Unova, I can tell you that much."
"Yeah, that sounds like a plan," Naomi replied, glancing down at Franky as she spoke. "I'm sure this runt probably wouldn't mind a quick pick-me-up too."
With their catches complete, the duo began to quickly make their way back towards the Pokémon academy. It had definitely been quite the interesting day so far, Naomi was sure of that much. For some reason, the girl had a feeling this was going to quickly become the standard for her here.
Spearow And Cutiefly Were Caught!
