With Carl finally gaining his starter Pokemon and his tools to begin his journey, there was nothing in his way of stopping him. So, without further ado, Carl cheerfully walked out of the Pokemon Lab and walked down the path heading towards Route 1.
Everything was still looking the same. Trees, trees, and more trees. However, as the afternoon was passing by, the sunlight reflecting over the trees was beginning to ware off slightly. Carl wasn't bothered though, all he wanted to do right now was to just head on off to the first gym. During Carl's walk, he spotted the girl who he saw before, who rudely commented towards him. Carl tried his best to avoid eye contact, but that didn't stop her. Once their paths crossed, she sjirachied. Carl turned around.
"You got something to say to me?" he didn't take too kindly to people who insult him, especially if he doesn't know them.
"Yeah." she bowed her head, "You're not going to stand a chance out there. I can tell just by looking at you."
"Excuse me?!"
"You heard me. I'm going to be the best. And once I'm the champion, you're going to have to face me if you ever want to take that title away from me." part the way through she was speaking, Carl shook his head.
"Don't bet on that." he kept his cool.
"Don't be so sure. It won't be long until the name Hayley Sandford becomes familiar to you. That's me, by the way." she introduced herself.
"Oh, really? I'm Carl Banks, and you're going to be hearing my name a lot as well. Maybe all the gym leaders will tell you about me and the way I battled them so well once you get started." Carl began arguing, turning his head back away from her.
"Oh, I'm just getting started right about now. You think you're a better trainer than me, why don't you battle me? We'll see who the real trainer is." Hayley told him, with a smug expression on her face.
"Of course, I don't mind. Got nothing to lose. Unlike you, who claims to have the reputation of a queen." Carl wasn't afraid of her at all. In fact, this was what he wanted. It'd be nice for Tepig to get started on a battle at this stage.
"Okay then, bring it!" she didn't seem too scared either. Straight away, she clicked her finger in front of Carl's face, and then both of them walked a few paces backwards, then turning around again.
This was Carl's first ever battle. Maybe not Hayley's, but it was definitely going to be a battle to remember for Carl, hopefully for the right reasons. While Hayley was determined to prove that she was going to be the better trainer, Carl was as well, but it didn't look as if he was anywhere near as bothered as Hayley was. She was arrogant, and didn't like being told what she could and couldn't do. Carl's realistic personality clashed with Hayley's cocky, self-centred personality.
"Alright, come on out, Tepig!" Carl took the small Poke Ball out of his bag, tossed it to the ground and then caught it back, Tepig came out of the Poke Ball, looking fierce. It saw Hayley, and immediately sensed that it was the rival, and pushed it's body back while small sparks of fire shot towards the ground from it's nostrils.
"Ha! A Fire-type? Oh, this battle should be easy. Show them your stuff, Tympole!" Hayley had took the Poke Ball from her red bag and had also thrown it to the ground, releasing Tympole. Small, scrawny faced and it had no legs. To keep up on the ground. It had to flop it's translucent orange tail above the ground. However, Carl noticed something unusual.
"Wait, isn't Tympole meant to have a blue tail?" Carl questioned, remembering this from his research.
"Nope. However, this Tympole is special, like me. Only Tympole is a shiny Pokemon, I received it as my starter Pokemon off Juniper. Isn't it adorable?" she did reveal her soft, girly side a little.
"Uh... not really." Carl said. Hayley humphed, not feeling impressed with Carl, and folding her arms. Carl had enough of the small talk, and wanted to get the battle over with. Thankfully, he could remember what he had studied during his research and knew the moves which Tepig had available.
"Okay, enough! Tepig, kick this off with Tackle!" he pointed to Tympole, and Tepig has launched off it's hind legs to charge at Tympole.
"Jump!" Hayley had quickly interruped the attack, commanding Tympole to move quickly, which it did - it's tail bounced off the ground a couple of metres and did a little backflip, Tepig charging right through the space where Tympole was and missing. It stopped and turned back.
"Okay, quickly! Try again!" Carl shouted. Fortunately, Tepig had heard, and had took a revenge shot at Tympole, who was struck off the ground and knocked forward. The attack didn't appear to hurt too much, but Tympole had recoiled for a second right before it got back up.
"Ugh! How dare you! Tympole, use Bubble while it's still close! Hayley wasn't happy at Carl's strategy. As soon as Tympole had heard Hayley's command, it had turned back quickly and had released many small, crystal clear bubbles from it's mouth, which travelled quite quickly.
"Run away from that, Tepig!!" Carl had interrupted the attack, just like Hayley before. Tepig wasn't too fast though, and while it was trying to run further away from the bubbles, they had caught up and smacked into Tepig's body. Because Tepig is weak to Water typed attacks, it did hurt a tad. However, after a shake, Tepig was ready to carry on.
"You're going to have to do better than that, dear." Carl bowed his head and chuckled, noticing that Tepig was barely affected.
"Don't worry. I can. Just you watch! Use Round!" straight away, Hayley had commanded Tympole to attack again. Tympole began to open it's tiny mouth, which appeared to be a whole lot bigger once opened. Then, it began to dance about on it's tail, and then sing an enormously loud tune. This noise made Tepig shake, trying to hold the noise away from it's ears. Even Carl and Hayley had their fingers in their ears, trying to block it out.
"Oh no you don't! Tepig, use Yawn!" Tepig had also opened it's mouth, then beginning to stretch out and yawn out a wave of drowzy energy, which had transferred all the way over to Tympole, who had suddenly ended it's attack. It's tail began to flap slower, and it fell closer to the ground.
"Pfft, is that the best you've got? Sleep? Ha! No worries. You just rest, Tympole!" normally the average trainer would be scared of sleep. This had Carl confused.
"What? Isn't sleep a bad thing?"
"Oh, you'll see." Hayley closed her eyes and smiled, in the confident manner she normally uses.
"Uh... yeah. Right. Tepig, use Ember!" Tepig had shot out a couple of sparks from it's nose, before then shooting a barrage of flares out a couple of seconds later. These flares had ended up hitting Tympole's body, which was just laying there on the ground, it's tail feebly slappng the ground, sleeping.
"Okay, now Tympole, use Sleep Talk!" so, this was the plan that Hayley had up her sleeve. Carl gasped in shock, he wasn't expecting this. Tympole had flapped it's tail for a bit, and had then began to open it's mouth again,
"Tyyyym-" breathing in air, "-poooooooole!" shooting out high pitched waves from it's mouth. This was Supersonic, and Carl knew what effects this could have on Tepig.
"Oh no! quick! Avoid that!" immediately, Tepig oinked and jumped out of the direction of the waves, causing no effect.
"Ugh!! Come on!" Hayley wasn't taking Carl's tricks so well. Meanwhile, he was really enjoying this battle, making her look like a fool. On the other hand, he did understand that she was pretty smart, using a move like Sleep Talk.
"Tepig, use Tackle!" Tepig didn't have many attacking moves at this moment, so this would have to do.
"Tepig, tepiiiig!", it took off from it's hind legs and charged towards Tympole, who was still fast asleep.
"Tyyyym!" once Tympole was hit, it screamed for a couple of seconds as it flew in the air, then hit the ground again and going back to sleep.
"Okay, use Sleep Talk again!" Hayley was still confident that this would work, and as Tepig was close, it could be even more accurate. It had appeared to have woken up for a second once again.
"Tyyyympole!" Tympole had then shot out a cannon of small bubbles towards Tepig, who was turned around until it had noiced them. The bubbles struck a shocked Tepig, who jumped and fell onto it's back.
"Yes! You should have seen this coming, fool." Hayley had ruled herself out as the winner, although she didn't know that the battle wasn't over yet. Matter of fact, Carl was still winning, and he had took advantage of this.
"That doesn't matter. Come on Tepig, use Ember and make it a strong one!"
"Teeeeeeepig!" Tepig hurled back it's throat, and had then shot out hundreds of little balls of fire which headed across the air, and to a started Tympole who woke up to the shock of scorching fireballs. Now it had looked rough, and didn't look like it could do much more.
"No! Tympole!" Hayley didn't like how this battle was turning out, and it was about to be over.
"Okay, let's round this up! Use Ember one last time, Tepig!" Carl had smiled in ecstacy, he was almost there.
"Te-" Tepig had retained it's neck backwards, and had then shot out another bunch of small fireballs "-piiiiiiig!"
"Tympole!!" the ember had struck Tympole, who couldn't take any more and had fell back to the ground and didn't get back up. It had became cross-eyed, meaning that it was knocked out, meaning Carl's Tepig had won the battle.
"Yes!!" Carl was in the mood of his life. His first ever battle, and it was a win. All that research he had carried out before he had began his journey had paid off. With a smile on his face, he headed over to Tepig to pet it. Tepig had also had a big grin on it's face, as their bond was just beginning to develop. Carl took the Poke Ball back out of his bag. "You did a great job, Tepig! Return!"
"It's alright Tympole, you'll do better next time. Return." Hayley, in disappointment, had returned her Pokemon and tried not to look back at Carl. She didn't like the reminder of how she had lost, especially after how confident she was.
"Now what?" Carl said, looking at her, feeling satisfied with himself. Hayley looked, and then straight away, ran off towards Route 1. Carl laughed.
"Haha! See you, definitely wouldn't want to be you!" he shouted, smiling.
Now that he had won his first battle, he was certainly ready to go, Hayley was the perfect practice from him, the rivalry which had just develloped between them was enough to fuel him up to create a strategy for Tepig and eventually, win. His work in Nuvema Town was done, and he had also began to walk over to Route 1, slowly.
-Tepig had grown to Level 12.