NotepadScrawls
Mugging Student
- 34
- Posts
- 10
- Years
- Seen Jul 29, 2014
1. That Littleroot Girl
"They say at 14, we have our whole lives ahead of us. We should not be afraid of failure but instead take life by the horns because there will be many opportunities for us youngins to pick ourselves up again should we fall. Of course, the age old belief is that with failure is not all bad as the experience brings with it knowledge, sometimes knowledge that cannot be obtained through a string of smooth sailing successes. But I digress. I haven't really failed as much as given up. Here I am, once more, sitting at my desk typing away while all other kids from Littleroot town pick up their starter pokemon at Professor Birch's lab and go on to pick up badges across the region as if they were picking berries. It's just so demoralizing. See, I live in Petalburg City, which happens to be the ridiculously close to Littleroot. Too close, I'd say. Those little brats come by all the time and manage to convincingly beat up any local trainer that they happen to challenge. They're hard to miss. Those kids have a certain air of confidence to them that nearly borders on arrogance, to me at least. I have this big inferiority complex problem (or so I think, I diagnosed myself after taking a quiz online, heh) that makes me really threatened by the air that those kids give off. They usually have a Torchic, Mudkip or Treecko that they picked up at Professor Birch's laboratory, of course there are trainers from there with other pokemon too. Living with the famous prof definitely has it's perks, you get invaluable access to a crazy amount of information on how to train, raise and take care of pokemon, it's no wonder those kids are so good at what they do. Having them being younger than I am is only another kick in the teeth. The only training I ever get is once a week when Norman's gym opens up to the public. Behind those polished glass doors are another bunch of over achieving kids. I'd love to join them in their classes, but I only moved in three years ago when I was eleven and the gym's classes are only opened to children below 10. Those classes are conducted by really talented pokemon trainers to give the kids a head start on their pokemon journey when they do come of age and get a license to own their own pokemon. None of those kids own any pokemon of their own, but they have so much match experience with handling rental pokemon from the gym's store that dominate everyone that visits the gym during its weekly openings. How it works is that there are many rooms in the gym, and when it opens once a week you get to battle in one of the many rooms with random people while everyone else looks on as they wait for their turn. It's kind of like a badminton interest group at a local community center. Of course, the gym kids coagulate together and cheer for each other while they cream anyone daring enough to challenge them. For me, I just hang around a dusty old room in the corner of the gym which is mostly filled with old folks who have retired and keep pokemon for pets. Even with them battles are really tough for me because some of them used to battle competitively and they are a lot more knowledgeable about pokemon than I am. I especially hate having to face off with ghost or fighting type pokemon because the only pokemon that I own is Buddy, my aipom who's been with me since I was 7. I didn't own Buddy at first, it was just another pokemon that my dad brought back to keep in the house. I love Buddy's energetic spirit and how he's happy all the time, so I spent a lot of time with him collecting berries back in Azalea Town when we still lived in the Johto region. Buddy really likes aspear berries so I usually keep a stock of them in the fridge, although store bought ones really aren't as good as the hand picked ones that we had back in Azalea, we have to make do with them because the only thing that grows around the outskirts of Petalburg are pecha and oran berries. My parents originally named him Happy because of the way he had that wide smile all the time, but as we grew closer I soon started greeting him by saying 'Hey Buddy' which Happy really seemed to like and the name eventually stuck.
Anyway, the reason why I'm so bummed out right now is because I just lost a battle at the Petalburg gym yesterday when it opened. It was against this old man who had a Poochyena that looked just as old as he did. With scraggy fur that looked like it hadn't been combed in weeks and an incomplete set of teeth, I thought for sure the that Buddy and I could defeat the both of them easily. I walked up to him and asked if I could have a battle, but spoke too softly for him to hear me. See, even though I seem really outspoken right now, it's only because I'm typing this right now. In real life I get tongue-tied and have to sputter out my words all the time. Despite that, I was really quietly confident about my chances. But like many of the old folks who visit the gym, this guy also had a trick up his sleeve. Once in battle, his poochyena turned into a beast. It bared its incomplete set of fangs in a snarl and growled deeply, scaring the pants of Buddy. Truth to be told, it scared me too, even though the poochyena's glare wasn't directed at me. I opened with fake out, like I always do, since it allows me to go first and flinch the opponent so that I get another chance to attack. I was already ready to command Buddy to follow up with fury swipes to end the battle quickly, but the old guy's poochyena actually grabbed Buddy's tail with its mouth. I couldn't believe my eyes, because fake out hardly ever gets countered. Needless to say, that counter-attack threw us both off balance and we were quickly overcome by a series of attacks. After the battle old gramps came up to me and started on a lecture about poochyena's skill intimidate which I already knew about but not wanting to be rude I just stood there and nodded during the appropriate times. I don't know about you though but I was really crushed. My insides just crumbled and I felt like I didn't have any energy left to face the rest of the day. I was really shocked, and disappointed at how mentally weak I was. At that moment, thoughts about all those enthusiastic children from Littleroot and the Petalburg gym just flooded my mind and I was filled with anger and jealousy towards those them. They just seemed to have it so easy, with all the resources, training facilities and family support to back them up. The moment the old guy stopped talking I quietly left the gym, and once the doors closed behind me, I bolted off. I was just sobbing all the way as I ran towards a pond near home to pick some wild oran berries to heal Buddy's wounds. Then I headed home, locked myself in my room and just cried myself to sleep. I didn't want the tears to flow, but they just wouldn't stop. I felt like an absolute wimp for having absolutely no ability to control both my pokemon and my emotions. It's just so frustrating to have absolutely no control whatsoever over any aspect of my life."
After finishing that last line, Alex clicked on the submit button on the screen and uploaded all that he had typed onto his newly opened blog. He was searching for help, but he didn't know who he was talking to exactly. After yesterday's infuriating failure at both pokemon and his psyche, he had pondered on the other possible routes that his life could take, yet again. He considered his penchant for writing, and how his teachers in school used to praise him for it and even mention his writing prowess in his report book at the end of every semester. It was, after all, one of the few things that he could take pride in. Not to mention how his abysmal confidence levels could receive a much needed boost if he could make something out of the talent that he had been blessed with. He started dreaming of all the novels that he would publish and the interviews that he would receive once he became an accomplished writer. In them he would be smartly dressed, in a white collared shirt with a red tie and his hair gelled up, sitting across the couch on a national talk show. It was one of those clothes that Alex never wore, preferring to wear a plain, loose shirt and baggy pants that reached down to just above his knees to allow for much more freedom in movement. Besides comfort, Alex also hated the attention that he would possibly receive if he were to wear something like that, although he secretly believed that he looked rather handsome in those clothes, which of course gave him a bloated impression of how much attention he would receive.
"Alex!"
That high pitched call pierced Alex's ears so much that it caused him to flinch. The person calling him of course was his mother, and he had unjustly grown to associate her voice with additional pressure. Alex didn't expect his mother to understand the problems and internal struggles that he faced, as she would often pry for information which caused Alex to shrink away from her even more. It pained Alex's mother to see how sad her poor boy was all the time, and she just wanted Alex to be able to run around and have fun like all the other children from Littleroot and the Petalburg gym. But seeing how Alex was the shy type who didn't like to mix around with other people, she thought she could be the one to keep Alex company, and thus endeavoured to spend time with Alex when he would much rather be alone.
"What is it now... man she's always telling me to do this and that and this and that... I can't stand it!" Alex muttered under his breath.
"I'm going shopping! We're running out of produce, do you want to come along with me honey?"
Alex flinched again at the word 'honey'. He thought it was outright gross. He didn't hate his mother, in fact, he had an idea of how much she loved him. He just needed to be left alone sometimes, and his mother didn't get that. He loathed himself for being so rude to a mother who dearly loved him, and these feelings just added more layers to the emotions that he had to deal with on a daily basis and caused him to shrink himself further from contact with other people. Still, Alex knew that his efforts to isolate himself were only causing him more pain, even though it shielded him temporarily from the pain that came with confrontation. He knew that if he stayed at home, he would just be roaming around on the internet all day. He looked down at his body and pinched at the layer of fat that had gathered from his inactivity. He wasn't exactly chubby, but all the other guys his age who trained with their pokemon daily were a lot leaner and stronger than he was. He figured that if he wasn't going to go out an exercise, the least he could do was to prevent himself from doing absolutely nothing at all. With that, he relented.
"Ok! I'm coming down!"
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" Alex's mother screeched from below. Partly because she couldn't believe her ears, and also partly because Alex spoke so softly all the time and what sounded like shouting to his own ears was really just slightly above speaking level
to the people that he talked to.
"Urgh... nothing..." He muttered to himself again as he ran downstairs while his mother continued to call out to him.
"Do you want to bring Happy along with you, I think he needs the exercise anyway, he hasn't been out in awhile."
Everyone still called aipom by his original name except for Alex. It made him a little apprehensive about calling aipom by his nickname around visiting relatives who knew about Happy's original name because he didn't want them asking him questions and invading his personal space. In any case, what his mother said was true. Because of his depression and mood swings Alex shut himself in very often and that meant that he didn't go out with Buddy very often, although he was comfortable with Buddy swinging around the trees outside his window it didn't give the purple monkey the sufficient amount of exercise that he needed to stay nimble and light weighted like most aipom are.
"Alright, Buddy wanna come?" Alex said, more brightly than usual. His tone instinctively changes whenever he speaks to Buddy. The purple monkey just happened to be lying down on the couch with one arm on his yellow belly and his wide smile turned upside down into a slight frown. At the sound of Alex's familiar voice his ears immediately perked up and his eyes lit up. He ran to the front door and began to do a little dance, which was one of the things that Alex loved about Buddy.
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Carrying plastic bags filled with groceries that they just bought, Buddy, Alex and his mother we're on their way home walking past an old basketball court. Their hands were filled with bags, and even Buddy was carrying one with his tail. It was a neat trick that Alex loved to show off at the grocery store all the time by having Buddy carry one grocery bag while standing onto Alex's shoulder. Some of the cashiers occasionally commented on how they were afraid that Buddy might injure his tail seeing how it was so thin and how heavy the bags were. Of course, with years of battling experience where his best attacks were executed with his tail, that part of his body was stronger than even his arms and legs. Walking past the court, the family saw two trainers standing at opposite ends of the field facing each other. Alex easily recognised one of the trainers as Jamie, a guy who frequently visited the Petalburg gym once a week just like Alex did. Jamie was only 11, but he was easily one of the better trainers in town. He already had a full team of 6 pokemon which made him an interesting trainer to battle and watch as you never knew which pokemon he would start out with. He had short red hair and sharp, bright blue eyes that showed how much passion and determination he had for battles. Alex and Jamie knew each other but only as acquaintances. Apart from knowing what pokemon both have in their rooster they only knew each other's names.
Standing at the opposite end of the basketball court was a stranger character. It was a girl who appeared older than Jamie, looking closer to Alex's age group. She sported a red bandanna with the signature pokeball logo on it. In fact, her whole outfit was red. She wore white gloves that ran off into black at the fingertips, and had a small bag with a buckle tied around her waist. This girl seemed a lot calmer than Jamie did, but at the same time there was this kiddish enthusiasm about her. It almost looked like she was trying to play it cool while the kid in her was waiting to burst out. The girl caught Alex's eye as he and his family approached the court, which caused him to flinch and look away.
"Let's make this a quick one-on-one battle!" She yelled from across the court.
"Alright!"
"Mom, could we stay and watch?" Alex found himself getting fired up to watch the battle despite himself. And his mother, who was always looking for opportunities to expose him to people his age, was more than happy to oblige.
"Sure honey, it'd be nice to watch a battle together!"
At that moment, the girl in red bandanna threw a pokeball several feet in front of her. It hit the ground with a click, and then opened up to release a white light which faded to reveal a blue pokemon, standing on all four of its stout limbs, and a lily pad leaf covering its entire back all the way up to it's head. Alex immediately recognised the pokemon, a lotad. With that, he also predicted the pokemon that Jamie was going to pick to counter the water-grass dual type.
"In that case, I'll use this!" Jamie threw a similar red and white ball into the field which released a similarly bright white light but this time into the air. Once the white light had faded, a black bird with red and white markings was revealed. It had a yellow beak and two long tail feathers which looked somewhat similar to the underdeveloped feet of zubat. But this bird had two talons of its own on top of the tail feathers, it was a tailow.
"Tailow, wing attack!" cried the gusty young trainer. His pokemon obeyed, swooping down swiftly to strike lotad heavily with its two wings before backing away into the air. The impact caused lotad to stagger backwards. It grimaced in pain as it fell back but seemed to be able to shake it off.
"Lotad, use leech seed!" cried the girl. Lotad opened its mouth to spit out three plain o' looking seeds, but before they could hit their mark, the airborne bird was able to cleverly evade the attack by flapping its wings to generate a gust of wind that blew the light seeds away. Alex was taken aback by the counter attack, as he had been defeated by many grass types which sported high defenses and leech seed, and all they had to do was hang in the battle long enough for leech seed to take its toil on Buddy before claiming victory. He figured with the type disadvantage that the girl in red bandanna would attempt a similar strategy. Looking at the girl however, she didn't look to surprised at the way things were going so far.
"Tailow, use quick attack!"
"Lotad, water gun."
The black bird tucked its wings to its side and swooped down towards Lotad once more, this time even more quickly than the first, so fast that it turned into a blur. Lotad opened its mouth to get ready to fire a blast of water, and just when tailow was about to collide into lotad, the water weed pokemon unleashed its attack which pushed tailow backwards and caused it to fall to the ground. Lotad was also pushed back by the impact, but not nearly as much as tailow.
"Quick Tailow, use quick attack to fly by up into the sky!"
The bird pokemon immediately got back up and started flying off, a clear indication of its finesse and agility.
"Lotad, use nature power!"
Lotad stomped into the ground with one of its feet and this caused a mini shock wave that spread out into the pokemon's surroundings. It didn't look too impressive, seeing how tailow was still flying in the air, unscathed and ready for its next attack. But then, glowing yellow stars began to shoot out from the area that the mini shock wave covered, into the air where the opposing pokemon was.
"Tailow, dodge with quick attack!" Already cold sweat was pouring out from Jamie's temples. Knowing that swift was an attack that always hit its mark wasn't enough for him to withhold his panic and call out a wrong move. Tailow did manage to dodge the spinning stars, but, like target seeking missiles, they switched their course and continued to fly after tailow.
"Lotad, use water gun again!" Lotad opened its mouth once more, this time requiring a lot less time than the first to charge up itself before unleashing another blast of water. It had a look of determination on its face that it didn't possess initially, certainly built up through the
tide of the battle which was clearly in the girl's favour now. The water gun attack collided into tailow who was busy avoiding the swift attack, stopping tailow in its tracks and allowing the target seeking stars to finally hit their mark. Once the attack subsided, tailow, with one arm covering its torso, gracefully fell towards the ground where Jamie was waiting to catch it. Fishing into his pocket, the young trainer pulled out a red and white pokeball which
released a stream of bright red light onto the exhausted bird before sucking it back into its pokeball.
Alex couldn't believe his eyes. He knew about nature power from his research online, but he's hardly ever seen one in person. It wasn't common for wild lotad to know the move seeing how rigorous training had to be conducted in order for the move to be mastered. At that moment, he looked at the girl with red bandanna with knew found respect. Having already sized her up after her poor opening, Alex certainly didn't expect her to successfully turn the tables the way she did.
"I gotta go now, thanks for the match!" With that, Jamie ran off. Alex thought he caught a glimpse of Jamie's face while he was running off. The kid looked flushed. Maybe it was possible that Alex was not the only one who struggled with feelings of inadequacy. Bending down, he got ready to pick up his groceries and move on. He also wanted to avoid the girl as much as possible. He'd just witnessed her strength and he certainly didn't want to be challenged to a battle to only be humiliated.
"Hey, you there! Wanna battle with me? I still have a few more pokemon!"
Gah! Why does this always have to happen? As much as he didn't want to battle, Alex was certainly not ready to offend anyone by rejecting them.
"Uhh... ok, but I only have one pokemon."
"No problem! We'll have a one on one battle, just like the one that I just had!"
"Go get them honey! I know you can do it!"
Having his mother cheering for him brought a slimy wave of embarrassment all over Alex's body. He could feel his muscles quivering and his hair standing on end. Dragging his feet over to the opposite end of the court to face of with the girl, Alex already looked defeated before the battle even started. Buddy, who was sitting on Alex's shoulder, could definitely sense his trainer's nervousness. His eyes were wide open and his eyeballs shrunk while his mouth exposed his teeth in an awkward, horizontal smile. Buddy liked battling with Alex, but only when the both of them are in form. But that rarely ever happened. Usually Alex would be a bundle of nerves, and that only caused Buddy to be confused on the battlefield if anything.
"I assume that your pokemon is going to be aipom?"
Alex nodded his head.
"Alright." The girl took her time to fish for another pokeball. She seemed to be able to sense Alex's nervousness as well, and didn't want to frighten the poor kid. Her words were gentle and had an element of guidance to them. Still, she didn't want to go easy on him. There was a general consensus amongst pokemon trainers that taking your opponents lightly was disrespectful to them. Once she found the pokeball that she wanted, she looked up towards Alex.
"Are you ready?" She said with a reassuring smile. Alex could feel his heart beginning to race. Pressure weighed on his shoulders pressed against his lungs. He felt the furthest away from being ready as he'd ever been. This feeling arose all the time during his battles at the Petalburg gym, and Alex had decided long ago that he was just going to let that feeling stay while battling all the same. Yet there was something in the girl's smile that calmed Alex down a little deep in his heart of hearts, even though his physical heart was going wild at the moment. Looking down at Buddy, he gave him a nervous smile and said "Go Buddy, you can do it."
Buddy leapt down from Alex's shoulders and ran a couple of feet in front of him to face the girl's pokemon in the battlefield. The girl then threw a pokeball several feet in front of her to release a reddish-orange bird like pokemon. It had a fiery looking crown on its head and an yellow beak. However, even though it was a bird, it didn't have any wings, only two fiery patches of feathers at its sides where its hands should have been. These patches had more flare to them than its crown in that they appeared more jagged.
"Torchic! Quick Attack!"
Torchic jumped into a run, scurrying across the field as fast as its little talons could carry it. Alex was exasperated. Another Torchic? He'd already seen enough of those from the trainers hailing from Littleroot that past by in town. Those pokemon were symbols of everything that was out of reach for him. Aptitude, skill and... friendship. Pictures of the children in the Petalburg gym rooting for one another flooded his mind once more. He'd believed that if only he was part of a group like that, having regular training partners who could impart tips to one another and be honest about each other's battling style, that he could improve at a breakneck pace compared to where he's at now. Instead, he's been stagnant for years while the rest were all racing ahead of him. Of course, while Alex was busy indulging in gloomy thoughts, the opposing torchic had already ran up to Buddy. Buddy had been waiting for a command from Alex, he didn't want to open up with their bread-and-butter fake out simply because he didn't want to spoil any possible attack plan that his trainer might have up his sleeve. With torchic right in his face, Buddy instinctively put his tail in front of himself to soften to blow of the impact. The blow connected, with both pokemon digging their feet into the ground to prevent themselves from being knocked over. Of course, since the opponent had made its first move, fake out was rendered useless for the rest of the battle.
"Follow up with ember!" The little fiery bird opened its mouth and released a jet of mini fire balls from its belly. The flames hit Buddy successively, forcing him to distance himself from the opposing pokemon. At this distance, there was no way for any of Buddy's physical attacks to reach torchic, and physical attacks were all that Buddy knew.
"Torchic, keep going, don't let up your ember attack!"
Torchic let out a high pitched caw as its battle cry, and continued to blast ember at Buddy. Buddy managed to dodge the ember by jumping over it, and torchic continued to sweep
the battlefield with its fire stream, forcing Buddy to continuously jump over the streamed in order to avoid the attack. A small bird like torchic was unlikely to be able to keep up this intensity for too long, even with the considerable skill of its trainer. She was still a teen, after all.
"Buddy, use quick attack to get close to torchic!"
Buddy responded by charging boldly towards the baby fire chick, nimbly dodging the fire balls although one or two manage to scrape him while he was running towards his opponent. Buddy could feel the power in his legs, the wind in his sails. He was almost going to fast for him to be able to keep his balance, but he managed to do it somehow. Soon he was within striking distance of his opponent.
"Roll into knock off!"
Jumping off the ground, Buddy leapt into a sommersault and slammed the tip of its hand-shaped tail into torchic's chest. The blow sent torchic flying several feet backwards towards
its trainer. Alex's heart glowed at the successful strike. He had been hoping that knock off would... well, knock off any items that torchic might have been holding in order to remove any items that might have been giving torchic an advantage in battle. He expected to see an item being knocked out from torchic's fur and landing somewhere on the battlefield, but no such item came out. Just like lotad in the earlier battle against Jamie, torchic got up after taking the hit, and its trainer looked just as calm as ever.
"Torchic, focus energy!" Torchic's brows furrowed as its glare intensified and its fur and crown began to ruffle. This got Alex sweating. He knew that if torchic could land a hit on Buddy's weakspot, with that being the the tip of its tail, that the attack might as well be a super-effective against him. Given that aipom generally do not have good defences, such an attack would probably take Buddy out in one shot and it would all be over. He certainly didn't want to taste the bitterness of defeat after having bit the dust so hard yesterday. Mustering up all that he had in him, he prepared himself for the final blow to take out torchic, who also happened to have sub-par defenses.
"Buddy, use quick attack and roll into slam!"
"Torchic, you use quick attack too, and when you get close use scratch!"
The two pokemon charged into each other, each letting out shrill battlecries. When they got close, both leapt off the ground. Torchic stretched out one of its legs towards Buddy while Buddy once again rolled into a somersault, preparing to slam its tail into torchic, this time with the length of its tail to create the effect of a whip.
The two pokemon collided, but torchic managed to strike first. It's talons slashed against the base of Buddy's tail, which greatly reduced the intensity of Buddy's slam attack. This was indeed the effect that Alex's opponent was going for, and focus energy was only a decoy to bait him into using one of his strongest move. Had torchic's claws and aipom's tail-fist collided, there was no doubt that Buddy would have come out on top, seeing how his tail's fist was already pretty heavy compared to torchic's body. In that instant when the girl saw that her torchic had hit its mark, she knew that victory was hers.
Buddy was knocked over and he sat on the ground. Bringing his tail up to his face, he began to blow the open wound gently. He then looked at Alex with wide, sad eyes, and immediately Alex knew that he didn't want to battle anymore. His tail was injured and majority of his moves required it to use him to use it. To swing a tail with a open wound around violently would only aggravate the injury. Sad as he was at having to suffer yet another loss, Buddy's well being was far more important to him than winning a battle. Walking over, he held his arms open as Buddy leapt into his arms.
"Thanks Buddy, have a good rest." He smiled, a real smile, as he stroked Buddy's soft furry head while the purple monkey purred comfortably.
Having returned her torchic back into its pokeball, the girl in red bandanna walked up to Alex.
"Hey, you're actually pretty good. You and your pokemon seem to have a really close bond too! My name is May, what's your name?" May sang cheerfully, although there was a raspiness in her voice that revealed how exhausted she was. That just made her appear all the more impressive seeing how she just came on top of two battles that were pretty close. She reached out her hand for Alex to shake it as thanks for the battle while muttering: "That other kid ran off without shaking my hand, how rude." She then giggled at her own joke, which amused Alex.
"I'm Alex." He replied sheepishly with a wry grin on his face that he tried, but failed to hide.
Just then, his mother walked up to them. "That was such a wonderful pokemon battle!" His mother smiled as she praised them both. Then, turning to May, she said: "You know, my son
doesn't go out a lot, but he does battle at the Petalburg gym every now and then so he has some experience under his belt." Alex's mother was desperately trying to make sure that
May could stay and make friends with Alex even though Alex wasn't too thrilled about how his mother was running off on a mill about him. However, her next line did bring some
relief as it directed the attention away from him.
"My... you look exhausted little girl! Would you like to come over for lunch?"
"Uhh... Hahahaha! It's alright I wouldn't want to intrude on your family Mrs..."
"Lewis. Mrs Lewis."
"R...Right! Hahaha Mrs Lewis. I'm used to being tired like that, I have to help my father collect as many pokemon as possible to help him complete his pokedex. Usually I just hang around in the nearest pokemon center from where I'm catching pokemon."
"Your father?"
"Yea... Professor Birch." May bit her lip after saying releasing that bit of information. She clearly did not want to be known for just being the famous professor's daughter. Of course
the distinction brought her joy and she held the name of Birch with pride. But seeing people reacting the same way over and over again was really tiring. Yet... looking at Alex, he
didn't look like he would be gushing over her as if he'd just met a celebrity. In any case he appeared to be terrified of people. He seemed nice enough though, and May reckoned that
he would open up to her if she showed herself to be friendly enough. Mrs Lewis detected May's discomfort, and quickly changed the subject. She knew from her experience with Alex
how pushing children to go where they didn't want to go would only end badly. Like Alex, she had the same gentle heart that was sensitive to the feelings of others. She just couldn't
bring herself to break down thin, delicate psychological films whenever she encountered them, for she knew that beneath those films laid fragile hearts that would experience excruciating pain under the slightest touch.
"Well, professor's daughter or not, its not healthy for a growing girl like you to always be eating food that is cooked outside and sleeping in pokemon center bunks that have been used by hundreds of people before you went there! Come along, I'll cook you a soup that will restore some life back into that old ragged face of yours!"
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Alex and May sat at a table at the corner of the living room where the Lewis family usually has their meals. Alex's father was sitting at the couch watching a reality sitcom about how Squirtle develop their shells together with the family slakoth who was sitting right next to him. They both had the same sleepy look on their faces, but both were thoroughly entertained by the television programme and enjoying the comforts of home which was only reinforced by the familiar smell of Mrs Lewis' vegetable soup wafting from the kitchen. Buddy was excited to have a new playmate, as slakoth was never up for playing games. He'd brought out all of his best toys to share with Torchic, a couple of coloured blocks scattered about the floor as the two new friends focused on building a castle. Even though Torchic had no hands, it grabbed blocks with its feet dexteriously.
"You actually thought my Torchic was holding an item?" May asked, wided eyed and with a laughing smile on her face. "Where did you think it was going to hold it? It has no arms!"
"Well, I thought you'd figure a way somehow considering how well you battled against Jamie. I actually thought you could hide items in Torchic's fur."
"What?" May laughed. She stopped abruptly, and then looked towards the top right corner of her eye. "Although... that might actually work, aww man, you're smart."
Both were thoroughly engaged in the conversation. It had been a long time since Alex had found a friend that he could speak with comfortably, having left his closest friends back in Johto when his family moved. There was something about May that made her really easy to talk to. He liked how she smiled a lot, and seemed genuinely interested in talking to him, unlike many of the other kids in the Petalburg gym who tried to approach him but gave up the moment they realised that he wasn't much of a talker. That was the part that frustrated Alex the most, because he wanted to make friends, but he just didn't know how to. Getting excited and displaying his emotions just wasn't his thing. He was too shy to pump his fist into the air in front of all those people. Of course it was a different story when he was alone, not that he would ever admit that to anyone.
"Say, what other pokemon do you have May?" It was a burning question that he'd had since they finished their battle at the field, but he was too afraid to ask for fear that he might
be seen as nosy or intrusive.
"Well... Torchic and Lotad are part of my main team..." She said before unclasping her bag's buckle to bring it up to the table. Unzipping the bag revealed that it was filled with absolutely nothing but pokeballs.
"Woah..." Alex was completely taken aback.
May laughed nervously, obviously embarrassed. "It's not a big deal really. I'm just helping my dad with his field work. It's fun, and you get to learn a lot of stuff about catching
pokemon and the different kinds of pokemon themselves. But sometimes, I'd just like to kick back and relax for once. I've actually explored half of the hoenn region on my own already,
well, the parts accessible by land that is. My dad does have lots of water pokemon at home that could take me across the seas, but he says that I''m too young and frankly I'm not comfortable with the idea of sleeping on a water pokemon's back out at sea. It's practically teeming with tentacool and their stings are really deadly."
Alex listened as he prodded around the pokeballs. Through their red translucent top he could see what pokemon the ball contained. There were a couple that he recognised like zigzagoon and winggull. May had even caught a ralts and a seedot which were really rare around the area. Majority of the pokemon, however, he'd never seen before except on the internet and maybe in the Petalburg gym.
"Do you want one?" May said with a smile. "I'd really like to get these off my back. I actually have several of the same pokemon for certain species, so my dad wouldn't mind if I gave one away. How about nincada? A swarm attacked us the other day and I had to use both Torchic, Lotad and some of the other pokemon that I just caught to ward them off. I guess it was good training but boy did it freak me out."
"N..no it's alright. You worked hard to catch those pokemon." Alex said, and he meant it.
"What about you? Have you ever caught any pokemon?"
"Well, yea I have, but I yet them all go." He could already see the shocked expression on May's face. "I just... couldn't bond with them like I did with Buddy. It just wasn't the same. I know that these things take time, but I didn't want to have to neglect Buddy to take care of other pokemon. So most of the pokemon that I caught just lazed around the house like pets all day. Of course some pokemon did stay if my mom and dad liked them. We do have two growlithe and a poochyena in the yard."
"But surely you know that just having an aipom on your team won't do. You need more pokemon so that you can get greater coverage against a wider variety of opponents!"
Not this again. This was the thousandth time he'd heard someone say this. Those old folks at the gym would never stop talking about how Alex would be 'so much better' if he only had more pokemon. Not that he didn't want anymore pokemon... but... yea, he'd just explained why.
"Tell you what, let's go catch you a pokemon right after lunch!"
"They say at 14, we have our whole lives ahead of us. We should not be afraid of failure but instead take life by the horns because there will be many opportunities for us youngins to pick ourselves up again should we fall. Of course, the age old belief is that with failure is not all bad as the experience brings with it knowledge, sometimes knowledge that cannot be obtained through a string of smooth sailing successes. But I digress. I haven't really failed as much as given up. Here I am, once more, sitting at my desk typing away while all other kids from Littleroot town pick up their starter pokemon at Professor Birch's lab and go on to pick up badges across the region as if they were picking berries. It's just so demoralizing. See, I live in Petalburg City, which happens to be the ridiculously close to Littleroot. Too close, I'd say. Those little brats come by all the time and manage to convincingly beat up any local trainer that they happen to challenge. They're hard to miss. Those kids have a certain air of confidence to them that nearly borders on arrogance, to me at least. I have this big inferiority complex problem (or so I think, I diagnosed myself after taking a quiz online, heh) that makes me really threatened by the air that those kids give off. They usually have a Torchic, Mudkip or Treecko that they picked up at Professor Birch's laboratory, of course there are trainers from there with other pokemon too. Living with the famous prof definitely has it's perks, you get invaluable access to a crazy amount of information on how to train, raise and take care of pokemon, it's no wonder those kids are so good at what they do. Having them being younger than I am is only another kick in the teeth. The only training I ever get is once a week when Norman's gym opens up to the public. Behind those polished glass doors are another bunch of over achieving kids. I'd love to join them in their classes, but I only moved in three years ago when I was eleven and the gym's classes are only opened to children below 10. Those classes are conducted by really talented pokemon trainers to give the kids a head start on their pokemon journey when they do come of age and get a license to own their own pokemon. None of those kids own any pokemon of their own, but they have so much match experience with handling rental pokemon from the gym's store that dominate everyone that visits the gym during its weekly openings. How it works is that there are many rooms in the gym, and when it opens once a week you get to battle in one of the many rooms with random people while everyone else looks on as they wait for their turn. It's kind of like a badminton interest group at a local community center. Of course, the gym kids coagulate together and cheer for each other while they cream anyone daring enough to challenge them. For me, I just hang around a dusty old room in the corner of the gym which is mostly filled with old folks who have retired and keep pokemon for pets. Even with them battles are really tough for me because some of them used to battle competitively and they are a lot more knowledgeable about pokemon than I am. I especially hate having to face off with ghost or fighting type pokemon because the only pokemon that I own is Buddy, my aipom who's been with me since I was 7. I didn't own Buddy at first, it was just another pokemon that my dad brought back to keep in the house. I love Buddy's energetic spirit and how he's happy all the time, so I spent a lot of time with him collecting berries back in Azalea Town when we still lived in the Johto region. Buddy really likes aspear berries so I usually keep a stock of them in the fridge, although store bought ones really aren't as good as the hand picked ones that we had back in Azalea, we have to make do with them because the only thing that grows around the outskirts of Petalburg are pecha and oran berries. My parents originally named him Happy because of the way he had that wide smile all the time, but as we grew closer I soon started greeting him by saying 'Hey Buddy' which Happy really seemed to like and the name eventually stuck.
Anyway, the reason why I'm so bummed out right now is because I just lost a battle at the Petalburg gym yesterday when it opened. It was against this old man who had a Poochyena that looked just as old as he did. With scraggy fur that looked like it hadn't been combed in weeks and an incomplete set of teeth, I thought for sure the that Buddy and I could defeat the both of them easily. I walked up to him and asked if I could have a battle, but spoke too softly for him to hear me. See, even though I seem really outspoken right now, it's only because I'm typing this right now. In real life I get tongue-tied and have to sputter out my words all the time. Despite that, I was really quietly confident about my chances. But like many of the old folks who visit the gym, this guy also had a trick up his sleeve. Once in battle, his poochyena turned into a beast. It bared its incomplete set of fangs in a snarl and growled deeply, scaring the pants of Buddy. Truth to be told, it scared me too, even though the poochyena's glare wasn't directed at me. I opened with fake out, like I always do, since it allows me to go first and flinch the opponent so that I get another chance to attack. I was already ready to command Buddy to follow up with fury swipes to end the battle quickly, but the old guy's poochyena actually grabbed Buddy's tail with its mouth. I couldn't believe my eyes, because fake out hardly ever gets countered. Needless to say, that counter-attack threw us both off balance and we were quickly overcome by a series of attacks. After the battle old gramps came up to me and started on a lecture about poochyena's skill intimidate which I already knew about but not wanting to be rude I just stood there and nodded during the appropriate times. I don't know about you though but I was really crushed. My insides just crumbled and I felt like I didn't have any energy left to face the rest of the day. I was really shocked, and disappointed at how mentally weak I was. At that moment, thoughts about all those enthusiastic children from Littleroot and the Petalburg gym just flooded my mind and I was filled with anger and jealousy towards those them. They just seemed to have it so easy, with all the resources, training facilities and family support to back them up. The moment the old guy stopped talking I quietly left the gym, and once the doors closed behind me, I bolted off. I was just sobbing all the way as I ran towards a pond near home to pick some wild oran berries to heal Buddy's wounds. Then I headed home, locked myself in my room and just cried myself to sleep. I didn't want the tears to flow, but they just wouldn't stop. I felt like an absolute wimp for having absolutely no ability to control both my pokemon and my emotions. It's just so frustrating to have absolutely no control whatsoever over any aspect of my life."
After finishing that last line, Alex clicked on the submit button on the screen and uploaded all that he had typed onto his newly opened blog. He was searching for help, but he didn't know who he was talking to exactly. After yesterday's infuriating failure at both pokemon and his psyche, he had pondered on the other possible routes that his life could take, yet again. He considered his penchant for writing, and how his teachers in school used to praise him for it and even mention his writing prowess in his report book at the end of every semester. It was, after all, one of the few things that he could take pride in. Not to mention how his abysmal confidence levels could receive a much needed boost if he could make something out of the talent that he had been blessed with. He started dreaming of all the novels that he would publish and the interviews that he would receive once he became an accomplished writer. In them he would be smartly dressed, in a white collared shirt with a red tie and his hair gelled up, sitting across the couch on a national talk show. It was one of those clothes that Alex never wore, preferring to wear a plain, loose shirt and baggy pants that reached down to just above his knees to allow for much more freedom in movement. Besides comfort, Alex also hated the attention that he would possibly receive if he were to wear something like that, although he secretly believed that he looked rather handsome in those clothes, which of course gave him a bloated impression of how much attention he would receive.
"Alex!"
That high pitched call pierced Alex's ears so much that it caused him to flinch. The person calling him of course was his mother, and he had unjustly grown to associate her voice with additional pressure. Alex didn't expect his mother to understand the problems and internal struggles that he faced, as she would often pry for information which caused Alex to shrink away from her even more. It pained Alex's mother to see how sad her poor boy was all the time, and she just wanted Alex to be able to run around and have fun like all the other children from Littleroot and the Petalburg gym. But seeing how Alex was the shy type who didn't like to mix around with other people, she thought she could be the one to keep Alex company, and thus endeavoured to spend time with Alex when he would much rather be alone.
"What is it now... man she's always telling me to do this and that and this and that... I can't stand it!" Alex muttered under his breath.
"I'm going shopping! We're running out of produce, do you want to come along with me honey?"
Alex flinched again at the word 'honey'. He thought it was outright gross. He didn't hate his mother, in fact, he had an idea of how much she loved him. He just needed to be left alone sometimes, and his mother didn't get that. He loathed himself for being so rude to a mother who dearly loved him, and these feelings just added more layers to the emotions that he had to deal with on a daily basis and caused him to shrink himself further from contact with other people. Still, Alex knew that his efforts to isolate himself were only causing him more pain, even though it shielded him temporarily from the pain that came with confrontation. He knew that if he stayed at home, he would just be roaming around on the internet all day. He looked down at his body and pinched at the layer of fat that had gathered from his inactivity. He wasn't exactly chubby, but all the other guys his age who trained with their pokemon daily were a lot leaner and stronger than he was. He figured that if he wasn't going to go out an exercise, the least he could do was to prevent himself from doing absolutely nothing at all. With that, he relented.
"Ok! I'm coming down!"
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" Alex's mother screeched from below. Partly because she couldn't believe her ears, and also partly because Alex spoke so softly all the time and what sounded like shouting to his own ears was really just slightly above speaking level
to the people that he talked to.
"Urgh... nothing..." He muttered to himself again as he ran downstairs while his mother continued to call out to him.
"Do you want to bring Happy along with you, I think he needs the exercise anyway, he hasn't been out in awhile."
Everyone still called aipom by his original name except for Alex. It made him a little apprehensive about calling aipom by his nickname around visiting relatives who knew about Happy's original name because he didn't want them asking him questions and invading his personal space. In any case, what his mother said was true. Because of his depression and mood swings Alex shut himself in very often and that meant that he didn't go out with Buddy very often, although he was comfortable with Buddy swinging around the trees outside his window it didn't give the purple monkey the sufficient amount of exercise that he needed to stay nimble and light weighted like most aipom are.
"Alright, Buddy wanna come?" Alex said, more brightly than usual. His tone instinctively changes whenever he speaks to Buddy. The purple monkey just happened to be lying down on the couch with one arm on his yellow belly and his wide smile turned upside down into a slight frown. At the sound of Alex's familiar voice his ears immediately perked up and his eyes lit up. He ran to the front door and began to do a little dance, which was one of the things that Alex loved about Buddy.
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Carrying plastic bags filled with groceries that they just bought, Buddy, Alex and his mother we're on their way home walking past an old basketball court. Their hands were filled with bags, and even Buddy was carrying one with his tail. It was a neat trick that Alex loved to show off at the grocery store all the time by having Buddy carry one grocery bag while standing onto Alex's shoulder. Some of the cashiers occasionally commented on how they were afraid that Buddy might injure his tail seeing how it was so thin and how heavy the bags were. Of course, with years of battling experience where his best attacks were executed with his tail, that part of his body was stronger than even his arms and legs. Walking past the court, the family saw two trainers standing at opposite ends of the field facing each other. Alex easily recognised one of the trainers as Jamie, a guy who frequently visited the Petalburg gym once a week just like Alex did. Jamie was only 11, but he was easily one of the better trainers in town. He already had a full team of 6 pokemon which made him an interesting trainer to battle and watch as you never knew which pokemon he would start out with. He had short red hair and sharp, bright blue eyes that showed how much passion and determination he had for battles. Alex and Jamie knew each other but only as acquaintances. Apart from knowing what pokemon both have in their rooster they only knew each other's names.
Standing at the opposite end of the basketball court was a stranger character. It was a girl who appeared older than Jamie, looking closer to Alex's age group. She sported a red bandanna with the signature pokeball logo on it. In fact, her whole outfit was red. She wore white gloves that ran off into black at the fingertips, and had a small bag with a buckle tied around her waist. This girl seemed a lot calmer than Jamie did, but at the same time there was this kiddish enthusiasm about her. It almost looked like she was trying to play it cool while the kid in her was waiting to burst out. The girl caught Alex's eye as he and his family approached the court, which caused him to flinch and look away.
"Let's make this a quick one-on-one battle!" She yelled from across the court.
"Alright!"
"Mom, could we stay and watch?" Alex found himself getting fired up to watch the battle despite himself. And his mother, who was always looking for opportunities to expose him to people his age, was more than happy to oblige.
"Sure honey, it'd be nice to watch a battle together!"
At that moment, the girl in red bandanna threw a pokeball several feet in front of her. It hit the ground with a click, and then opened up to release a white light which faded to reveal a blue pokemon, standing on all four of its stout limbs, and a lily pad leaf covering its entire back all the way up to it's head. Alex immediately recognised the pokemon, a lotad. With that, he also predicted the pokemon that Jamie was going to pick to counter the water-grass dual type.
"In that case, I'll use this!" Jamie threw a similar red and white ball into the field which released a similarly bright white light but this time into the air. Once the white light had faded, a black bird with red and white markings was revealed. It had a yellow beak and two long tail feathers which looked somewhat similar to the underdeveloped feet of zubat. But this bird had two talons of its own on top of the tail feathers, it was a tailow.
"Tailow, wing attack!" cried the gusty young trainer. His pokemon obeyed, swooping down swiftly to strike lotad heavily with its two wings before backing away into the air. The impact caused lotad to stagger backwards. It grimaced in pain as it fell back but seemed to be able to shake it off.
"Lotad, use leech seed!" cried the girl. Lotad opened its mouth to spit out three plain o' looking seeds, but before they could hit their mark, the airborne bird was able to cleverly evade the attack by flapping its wings to generate a gust of wind that blew the light seeds away. Alex was taken aback by the counter attack, as he had been defeated by many grass types which sported high defenses and leech seed, and all they had to do was hang in the battle long enough for leech seed to take its toil on Buddy before claiming victory. He figured with the type disadvantage that the girl in red bandanna would attempt a similar strategy. Looking at the girl however, she didn't look to surprised at the way things were going so far.
"Tailow, use quick attack!"
"Lotad, water gun."
The black bird tucked its wings to its side and swooped down towards Lotad once more, this time even more quickly than the first, so fast that it turned into a blur. Lotad opened its mouth to get ready to fire a blast of water, and just when tailow was about to collide into lotad, the water weed pokemon unleashed its attack which pushed tailow backwards and caused it to fall to the ground. Lotad was also pushed back by the impact, but not nearly as much as tailow.
"Quick Tailow, use quick attack to fly by up into the sky!"
The bird pokemon immediately got back up and started flying off, a clear indication of its finesse and agility.
"Lotad, use nature power!"
Lotad stomped into the ground with one of its feet and this caused a mini shock wave that spread out into the pokemon's surroundings. It didn't look too impressive, seeing how tailow was still flying in the air, unscathed and ready for its next attack. But then, glowing yellow stars began to shoot out from the area that the mini shock wave covered, into the air where the opposing pokemon was.
"Tailow, dodge with quick attack!" Already cold sweat was pouring out from Jamie's temples. Knowing that swift was an attack that always hit its mark wasn't enough for him to withhold his panic and call out a wrong move. Tailow did manage to dodge the spinning stars, but, like target seeking missiles, they switched their course and continued to fly after tailow.
"Lotad, use water gun again!" Lotad opened its mouth once more, this time requiring a lot less time than the first to charge up itself before unleashing another blast of water. It had a look of determination on its face that it didn't possess initially, certainly built up through the
tide of the battle which was clearly in the girl's favour now. The water gun attack collided into tailow who was busy avoiding the swift attack, stopping tailow in its tracks and allowing the target seeking stars to finally hit their mark. Once the attack subsided, tailow, with one arm covering its torso, gracefully fell towards the ground where Jamie was waiting to catch it. Fishing into his pocket, the young trainer pulled out a red and white pokeball which
released a stream of bright red light onto the exhausted bird before sucking it back into its pokeball.
Alex couldn't believe his eyes. He knew about nature power from his research online, but he's hardly ever seen one in person. It wasn't common for wild lotad to know the move seeing how rigorous training had to be conducted in order for the move to be mastered. At that moment, he looked at the girl with red bandanna with knew found respect. Having already sized her up after her poor opening, Alex certainly didn't expect her to successfully turn the tables the way she did.
"I gotta go now, thanks for the match!" With that, Jamie ran off. Alex thought he caught a glimpse of Jamie's face while he was running off. The kid looked flushed. Maybe it was possible that Alex was not the only one who struggled with feelings of inadequacy. Bending down, he got ready to pick up his groceries and move on. He also wanted to avoid the girl as much as possible. He'd just witnessed her strength and he certainly didn't want to be challenged to a battle to only be humiliated.
"Hey, you there! Wanna battle with me? I still have a few more pokemon!"
Gah! Why does this always have to happen? As much as he didn't want to battle, Alex was certainly not ready to offend anyone by rejecting them.
"Uhh... ok, but I only have one pokemon."
"No problem! We'll have a one on one battle, just like the one that I just had!"
"Go get them honey! I know you can do it!"
Having his mother cheering for him brought a slimy wave of embarrassment all over Alex's body. He could feel his muscles quivering and his hair standing on end. Dragging his feet over to the opposite end of the court to face of with the girl, Alex already looked defeated before the battle even started. Buddy, who was sitting on Alex's shoulder, could definitely sense his trainer's nervousness. His eyes were wide open and his eyeballs shrunk while his mouth exposed his teeth in an awkward, horizontal smile. Buddy liked battling with Alex, but only when the both of them are in form. But that rarely ever happened. Usually Alex would be a bundle of nerves, and that only caused Buddy to be confused on the battlefield if anything.
"I assume that your pokemon is going to be aipom?"
Alex nodded his head.
"Alright." The girl took her time to fish for another pokeball. She seemed to be able to sense Alex's nervousness as well, and didn't want to frighten the poor kid. Her words were gentle and had an element of guidance to them. Still, she didn't want to go easy on him. There was a general consensus amongst pokemon trainers that taking your opponents lightly was disrespectful to them. Once she found the pokeball that she wanted, she looked up towards Alex.
"Are you ready?" She said with a reassuring smile. Alex could feel his heart beginning to race. Pressure weighed on his shoulders pressed against his lungs. He felt the furthest away from being ready as he'd ever been. This feeling arose all the time during his battles at the Petalburg gym, and Alex had decided long ago that he was just going to let that feeling stay while battling all the same. Yet there was something in the girl's smile that calmed Alex down a little deep in his heart of hearts, even though his physical heart was going wild at the moment. Looking down at Buddy, he gave him a nervous smile and said "Go Buddy, you can do it."
Buddy leapt down from Alex's shoulders and ran a couple of feet in front of him to face the girl's pokemon in the battlefield. The girl then threw a pokeball several feet in front of her to release a reddish-orange bird like pokemon. It had a fiery looking crown on its head and an yellow beak. However, even though it was a bird, it didn't have any wings, only two fiery patches of feathers at its sides where its hands should have been. These patches had more flare to them than its crown in that they appeared more jagged.
"Torchic! Quick Attack!"
Torchic jumped into a run, scurrying across the field as fast as its little talons could carry it. Alex was exasperated. Another Torchic? He'd already seen enough of those from the trainers hailing from Littleroot that past by in town. Those pokemon were symbols of everything that was out of reach for him. Aptitude, skill and... friendship. Pictures of the children in the Petalburg gym rooting for one another flooded his mind once more. He'd believed that if only he was part of a group like that, having regular training partners who could impart tips to one another and be honest about each other's battling style, that he could improve at a breakneck pace compared to where he's at now. Instead, he's been stagnant for years while the rest were all racing ahead of him. Of course, while Alex was busy indulging in gloomy thoughts, the opposing torchic had already ran up to Buddy. Buddy had been waiting for a command from Alex, he didn't want to open up with their bread-and-butter fake out simply because he didn't want to spoil any possible attack plan that his trainer might have up his sleeve. With torchic right in his face, Buddy instinctively put his tail in front of himself to soften to blow of the impact. The blow connected, with both pokemon digging their feet into the ground to prevent themselves from being knocked over. Of course, since the opponent had made its first move, fake out was rendered useless for the rest of the battle.
"Follow up with ember!" The little fiery bird opened its mouth and released a jet of mini fire balls from its belly. The flames hit Buddy successively, forcing him to distance himself from the opposing pokemon. At this distance, there was no way for any of Buddy's physical attacks to reach torchic, and physical attacks were all that Buddy knew.
"Torchic, keep going, don't let up your ember attack!"
Torchic let out a high pitched caw as its battle cry, and continued to blast ember at Buddy. Buddy managed to dodge the ember by jumping over it, and torchic continued to sweep
the battlefield with its fire stream, forcing Buddy to continuously jump over the streamed in order to avoid the attack. A small bird like torchic was unlikely to be able to keep up this intensity for too long, even with the considerable skill of its trainer. She was still a teen, after all.
"Buddy, use quick attack to get close to torchic!"
Buddy responded by charging boldly towards the baby fire chick, nimbly dodging the fire balls although one or two manage to scrape him while he was running towards his opponent. Buddy could feel the power in his legs, the wind in his sails. He was almost going to fast for him to be able to keep his balance, but he managed to do it somehow. Soon he was within striking distance of his opponent.
"Roll into knock off!"
Jumping off the ground, Buddy leapt into a sommersault and slammed the tip of its hand-shaped tail into torchic's chest. The blow sent torchic flying several feet backwards towards
its trainer. Alex's heart glowed at the successful strike. He had been hoping that knock off would... well, knock off any items that torchic might have been holding in order to remove any items that might have been giving torchic an advantage in battle. He expected to see an item being knocked out from torchic's fur and landing somewhere on the battlefield, but no such item came out. Just like lotad in the earlier battle against Jamie, torchic got up after taking the hit, and its trainer looked just as calm as ever.
"Torchic, focus energy!" Torchic's brows furrowed as its glare intensified and its fur and crown began to ruffle. This got Alex sweating. He knew that if torchic could land a hit on Buddy's weakspot, with that being the the tip of its tail, that the attack might as well be a super-effective against him. Given that aipom generally do not have good defences, such an attack would probably take Buddy out in one shot and it would all be over. He certainly didn't want to taste the bitterness of defeat after having bit the dust so hard yesterday. Mustering up all that he had in him, he prepared himself for the final blow to take out torchic, who also happened to have sub-par defenses.
"Buddy, use quick attack and roll into slam!"
"Torchic, you use quick attack too, and when you get close use scratch!"
The two pokemon charged into each other, each letting out shrill battlecries. When they got close, both leapt off the ground. Torchic stretched out one of its legs towards Buddy while Buddy once again rolled into a somersault, preparing to slam its tail into torchic, this time with the length of its tail to create the effect of a whip.
The two pokemon collided, but torchic managed to strike first. It's talons slashed against the base of Buddy's tail, which greatly reduced the intensity of Buddy's slam attack. This was indeed the effect that Alex's opponent was going for, and focus energy was only a decoy to bait him into using one of his strongest move. Had torchic's claws and aipom's tail-fist collided, there was no doubt that Buddy would have come out on top, seeing how his tail's fist was already pretty heavy compared to torchic's body. In that instant when the girl saw that her torchic had hit its mark, she knew that victory was hers.
Buddy was knocked over and he sat on the ground. Bringing his tail up to his face, he began to blow the open wound gently. He then looked at Alex with wide, sad eyes, and immediately Alex knew that he didn't want to battle anymore. His tail was injured and majority of his moves required it to use him to use it. To swing a tail with a open wound around violently would only aggravate the injury. Sad as he was at having to suffer yet another loss, Buddy's well being was far more important to him than winning a battle. Walking over, he held his arms open as Buddy leapt into his arms.
"Thanks Buddy, have a good rest." He smiled, a real smile, as he stroked Buddy's soft furry head while the purple monkey purred comfortably.
Having returned her torchic back into its pokeball, the girl in red bandanna walked up to Alex.
"Hey, you're actually pretty good. You and your pokemon seem to have a really close bond too! My name is May, what's your name?" May sang cheerfully, although there was a raspiness in her voice that revealed how exhausted she was. That just made her appear all the more impressive seeing how she just came on top of two battles that were pretty close. She reached out her hand for Alex to shake it as thanks for the battle while muttering: "That other kid ran off without shaking my hand, how rude." She then giggled at her own joke, which amused Alex.
"I'm Alex." He replied sheepishly with a wry grin on his face that he tried, but failed to hide.
Just then, his mother walked up to them. "That was such a wonderful pokemon battle!" His mother smiled as she praised them both. Then, turning to May, she said: "You know, my son
doesn't go out a lot, but he does battle at the Petalburg gym every now and then so he has some experience under his belt." Alex's mother was desperately trying to make sure that
May could stay and make friends with Alex even though Alex wasn't too thrilled about how his mother was running off on a mill about him. However, her next line did bring some
relief as it directed the attention away from him.
"My... you look exhausted little girl! Would you like to come over for lunch?"
"Uhh... Hahahaha! It's alright I wouldn't want to intrude on your family Mrs..."
"Lewis. Mrs Lewis."
"R...Right! Hahaha Mrs Lewis. I'm used to being tired like that, I have to help my father collect as many pokemon as possible to help him complete his pokedex. Usually I just hang around in the nearest pokemon center from where I'm catching pokemon."
"Your father?"
"Yea... Professor Birch." May bit her lip after saying releasing that bit of information. She clearly did not want to be known for just being the famous professor's daughter. Of course
the distinction brought her joy and she held the name of Birch with pride. But seeing people reacting the same way over and over again was really tiring. Yet... looking at Alex, he
didn't look like he would be gushing over her as if he'd just met a celebrity. In any case he appeared to be terrified of people. He seemed nice enough though, and May reckoned that
he would open up to her if she showed herself to be friendly enough. Mrs Lewis detected May's discomfort, and quickly changed the subject. She knew from her experience with Alex
how pushing children to go where they didn't want to go would only end badly. Like Alex, she had the same gentle heart that was sensitive to the feelings of others. She just couldn't
bring herself to break down thin, delicate psychological films whenever she encountered them, for she knew that beneath those films laid fragile hearts that would experience excruciating pain under the slightest touch.
"Well, professor's daughter or not, its not healthy for a growing girl like you to always be eating food that is cooked outside and sleeping in pokemon center bunks that have been used by hundreds of people before you went there! Come along, I'll cook you a soup that will restore some life back into that old ragged face of yours!"
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Alex and May sat at a table at the corner of the living room where the Lewis family usually has their meals. Alex's father was sitting at the couch watching a reality sitcom about how Squirtle develop their shells together with the family slakoth who was sitting right next to him. They both had the same sleepy look on their faces, but both were thoroughly entertained by the television programme and enjoying the comforts of home which was only reinforced by the familiar smell of Mrs Lewis' vegetable soup wafting from the kitchen. Buddy was excited to have a new playmate, as slakoth was never up for playing games. He'd brought out all of his best toys to share with Torchic, a couple of coloured blocks scattered about the floor as the two new friends focused on building a castle. Even though Torchic had no hands, it grabbed blocks with its feet dexteriously.
"You actually thought my Torchic was holding an item?" May asked, wided eyed and with a laughing smile on her face. "Where did you think it was going to hold it? It has no arms!"
"Well, I thought you'd figure a way somehow considering how well you battled against Jamie. I actually thought you could hide items in Torchic's fur."
"What?" May laughed. She stopped abruptly, and then looked towards the top right corner of her eye. "Although... that might actually work, aww man, you're smart."
Both were thoroughly engaged in the conversation. It had been a long time since Alex had found a friend that he could speak with comfortably, having left his closest friends back in Johto when his family moved. There was something about May that made her really easy to talk to. He liked how she smiled a lot, and seemed genuinely interested in talking to him, unlike many of the other kids in the Petalburg gym who tried to approach him but gave up the moment they realised that he wasn't much of a talker. That was the part that frustrated Alex the most, because he wanted to make friends, but he just didn't know how to. Getting excited and displaying his emotions just wasn't his thing. He was too shy to pump his fist into the air in front of all those people. Of course it was a different story when he was alone, not that he would ever admit that to anyone.
"Say, what other pokemon do you have May?" It was a burning question that he'd had since they finished their battle at the field, but he was too afraid to ask for fear that he might
be seen as nosy or intrusive.
"Well... Torchic and Lotad are part of my main team..." She said before unclasping her bag's buckle to bring it up to the table. Unzipping the bag revealed that it was filled with absolutely nothing but pokeballs.
"Woah..." Alex was completely taken aback.
May laughed nervously, obviously embarrassed. "It's not a big deal really. I'm just helping my dad with his field work. It's fun, and you get to learn a lot of stuff about catching
pokemon and the different kinds of pokemon themselves. But sometimes, I'd just like to kick back and relax for once. I've actually explored half of the hoenn region on my own already,
well, the parts accessible by land that is. My dad does have lots of water pokemon at home that could take me across the seas, but he says that I''m too young and frankly I'm not comfortable with the idea of sleeping on a water pokemon's back out at sea. It's practically teeming with tentacool and their stings are really deadly."
Alex listened as he prodded around the pokeballs. Through their red translucent top he could see what pokemon the ball contained. There were a couple that he recognised like zigzagoon and winggull. May had even caught a ralts and a seedot which were really rare around the area. Majority of the pokemon, however, he'd never seen before except on the internet and maybe in the Petalburg gym.
"Do you want one?" May said with a smile. "I'd really like to get these off my back. I actually have several of the same pokemon for certain species, so my dad wouldn't mind if I gave one away. How about nincada? A swarm attacked us the other day and I had to use both Torchic, Lotad and some of the other pokemon that I just caught to ward them off. I guess it was good training but boy did it freak me out."
"N..no it's alright. You worked hard to catch those pokemon." Alex said, and he meant it.
"What about you? Have you ever caught any pokemon?"
"Well, yea I have, but I yet them all go." He could already see the shocked expression on May's face. "I just... couldn't bond with them like I did with Buddy. It just wasn't the same. I know that these things take time, but I didn't want to have to neglect Buddy to take care of other pokemon. So most of the pokemon that I caught just lazed around the house like pets all day. Of course some pokemon did stay if my mom and dad liked them. We do have two growlithe and a poochyena in the yard."
"But surely you know that just having an aipom on your team won't do. You need more pokemon so that you can get greater coverage against a wider variety of opponents!"
Not this again. This was the thousandth time he'd heard someone say this. Those old folks at the gym would never stop talking about how Alex would be 'so much better' if he only had more pokemon. Not that he didn't want anymore pokemon... but... yea, he'd just explained why.
"Tell you what, let's go catch you a pokemon right after lunch!"
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