((OOC: Even though Archie learned Water Gun as a result of the previous post, I'm imagining that he's been practicing a weak, non-combat-worthy version before now, since it's not like it's a TM move or anything, so he can suddenly use it now, haha.))
Astrid woke up first. It was mostly overcast now, the morning chill was damp on her face, but there were streaks of sky visible when she rolled over and rubbed her eyes to squint upward. It wasn't about to rain right now, probably. Maybe later, if it didn't clear up.
She stretched in the sleeping bag, then sat up. Beside her, Clover roused at her motions, his light grey fur bright against her red bag. He'd slept right next to her, only outside the sleeping bag—her thermal sleeping bag was two warm for him to have stayed in with her, they'd soon discovered. Archie was a green lump of shell at her feet, most of himself pulled into the shell, tail curled around. There was Jay's Pidove a bit farther off, pecking among the grass for seeds or something, and Astrid remembered she wasn't alone.
Craning around to look, she saw Jay's black hair, the only part of him visible outside his blue sleeping bag. The blue colour wasn't that visible either. All of his team seemed to be sleeping on or around him, the Nidoran pair snuggled together, the Houdour and Poochyena sprawled like the puppies they were, and Kadru the Snivy in a tidy ball at Jay's head.
If Kadru had progressed like Archie, and she did seem to be the strongest of Jay's team, she'd know at least one grass move by now. Archie was disadvantaged there for sure, and Astrid wasn't going to put Clover into battle anyway. Hmm. Archie's Water Gun attack was one they'd been working on for awhile, and it wasn't really there yet, but it would do better than Bubble, certainly... it had more battlefield uses anyway. And Archie was sturdy...
Thinking on it, she slipped out of her sleeping bag and went to her fire. Poking at the ashes, she uncovered a few embers, and fed it slowly back to life.
While she boiled water for instant oatmeal, Archie woke up, and so did all of Jay's pokemon, even Kadru. Astrid had noticed that Archie was extremely alert to the possiblities of food—so was Clover. And, it seemed, so were most pokemon. Soon, crouched over her little fire, she was faced with a whole ring of hopeful-looking faces. Astrid eyed Archie. "They know about the bread, don't they?"
"Squir... tle." Archie had the grace to look a little embarrassed at that, but then his eyes went to her pack.
"You realize that by sharing it, there's none left until Pewter," she warned him, and he looked chagrined at that, but then glanced at his new friends, and gave a helpless shrug.
She dumped her heated water into her thermos cap, and added the oatmeal. While it soaked, she dug the nanab bread out and broke it up into pieces for the assembled crowd. Even the Pidove returned from looking for grass seeds to accept his bite.
By the time everyone had some, her oatmeal was read, and she sat down to eat it. The unabashed glee with which the pokemon were nibbling, chomping, pecking, and chewing at the bread was... okay, it was cute, and she couldn't resist grinning at the sight.
Jay, for his part, was still soundly asleep, and stayed that way until Astrid had finished eating, washing out her thermos cap, rolling up her sleeping back, and repacking her bag.
Archie had spent the whole time socializing with Jay's pokemon, and Clover had inched over to be with them as well. He'd glanced in Jay's direction from time to time but it looked like being with the pokemon was easing his mind a bit about Jay. That was good. If he knew that other people aside from Astrid were nice, maybe he'd be less scared when they got to Pewter.
Wait, had she just thought of Jay as "nice"? What was the world coming to? Not like she wanted anything to happen to him, and no, he wasn't bad or anything, of course not, but he was so...
Well. He definitely wasn't annoying when he was asleep, at least. She laughed a bit at that.
"Morning Astrid!" Jay chirped, and she jumped and looked over. He was sitting up in his sleeping bag. His hair was a total mess, but otherwise, he looking bright-eyed as if someone had hit an "on" switch.
"Morning," she returned.
"Wow, you're packed and everything already? Did you eat? I have some—"
"Yeah, I ate," she interrupted him, and he shrugged, unfazed. Now that he'd woken up, Kadru trotted over to greet him, and the others did likewise, in their own time. He gave cuddles and headscratches as appropriate.
Beside Astrid, Archie's demeanour had changed. Instead of just cheerful he was now definitely waiting for something, watching Kadru, and Astrid could see Kadru settling into the same sort of state.
"Alright, alright, let me get some food," Jay was saying. He changed his socks and t-shirt, rolled up his sleeping bag, then rummaged in his pack, pulling out trail mix and a juice box. He shoveled a handful of it into his mouth, then spoke. "'Et's batt'l!"
Astrid gave him a disapproving glower (in truth, she thought it was funny, but... she didn't want him to know that), and he obligingly chewed and swallowed before repeating, "Let's battle!"
Down to business, good. Astrid nodded, and stood up. Archie clapped his hands together, and Kadru bounced on her toes. "Just these two," Jay added, and Astrid nodded in confirmation. Jay eyed Archie, probably assuming he had the advantage, and went on, "and the winner gives the loser some fresh water or a potion or something." He looked at her earnestly, then over at Clover. "I don't want to strand you out here with the pokemon you don't want to battle."
"Thanks," she said dryly. She pointed out towards the meadow area, away from the little fire, and they headed there, and face each other across a wide swath of low, breeze-blown grass and small shrubbery. "Remember," she said to Archie, "she's probably got a grass move. You're tough but that will be a bad hit. Dodge that, even if you don't dodge anything else."
Despite her confidence, this really would be hard. This wasn't an ideal arena for Archie. The grass, even though it wasn't tall enough for wild pokemon to hide in, here, was still tall enough to make it awkward for Archie to move easily, and he wasn't exactly agile at the best of times. "When I say Bubble or Water Gun, don't try for a hard hit, try for interference, okay?" Archie nodded, and Astrid hoped their time training together meant he really did understand everything she'd said. 'Interference' was one of their key words now, and he didn't look confused at all. But practicing 'real' and 'interference' moves might not really have sunk in just yet...
Well, anyway. Archie was excited, and so was she, to be honest. She straightened up and looked at Jay, standing across the meadow in the morning light. Something inside her gave a little thrill. This is being a pokemon trainer, she thought, and her imagination shot her back to those striking gym battles she'd seen. Someday that'll be us, she thought, looking at Jayesh's short profile and back-pack wrinkled clothing. He'd grow up doing this, and so would she.
"Ready?" she called out, and he raised one hand in a thumbs up. "Go, Archie! Opening moves!" she commanded.
"Squirrrr-tt!!" he cried as he fell into a battle stance.
"Kadru, attack!" came from Jayesh's end, and both pokemon moved. Kadru shot forwad, moving through the grass as if she belonged there, and Archie bounded like a stone falling down a slope. "Leer!"
They didn't slam together when they met in the middle. Rather, Kadru paused and circled, head down as she tried to catch Archie's gaze to land her leer. Archie did as Astrid had said, what she wanted him to use as his opening moves for now—he lunged in a fake tackle. The feint redirected Kadru's leer, and Archie slid promptly to the side, spitting bubbles.
"Vine Whip!" Jayesh's voice was faint to Astrid, but not to Kadru, certainly, and she wheeled through the bubbles, trying to spot her opponent. The bubbles popped nearly harmlessly against Kadru's green hide, but she wasn't moving so quick as if the field was clear. Her vines looped out, gaining momentum that the bubbles mitigated, a bit. Not enough. One missed, one landed, a glancing blow only, but still.
"Withdraw!" Archie rolled away and to his feet, tucking himself into his shell. "Again!" Astrid told him, as Kadru followed Jay's command and slithered forward through the bubble-slickened grass to loop those vines around Archie in a tight Wrap. Bubbles were meant to reduce speed, Astrid knew, but against a grass-type, on a field, not so much.
It wasn't as bad as it could be, Astrid reassured herself. Kadru was wrapping mostly shell. She'd pinned his tail to his back, but Archie's limbs were free, and she was small. Her vines slowed him, squeezed, but didn't impede his movement for the narrow space of slack that was left between them.
Archie's toes flexed, digging shallow furrows in the ground as he resisted—without much difficulty, Astrid saw with pride—Kadru's attempt to drag him off balance.
"Growth!!" Jay's call floated across the battlefield, and Kadru set her own feet and closed her eyes, seeming to glow, even in the morning light.
"Tail--" Astrid cut herself off. That move wouldn't work, now. "Just tackle!" Astrid called. "You're tough and she's attached to you now! Pull her down!"
Archie, still braced back against the vines, narrowed his eyes in consideration at that. "SQUIRTLE!" he bellowed, and Kadru's eyes popped open. Astrid clapped her hands once in delight. Distraction of power-up moves, she'd have to add that to her list. But Archie wasn't done, of course. He shot forward and slammed into Kadru, and she bounced off him, only to smack into him again as her vines pulled her up short. Archie spun, dragging her through the wet grass in a circle, gaining momentum before jumping back against the pull of the vines, and falling onto his side. Kadru's vines tightened, but she was yanked through the air to slam into the ground before she could pull in the slack enough.
She let go instead, jumping backwards.
"Water gun!" Astrid said. "Push her back!"
"Vine whip!" Jay's simultaneous order came, "you're stronger now!"
Archie's jet of water slid Kadru back through wet grass, though, and her vine whip swung wide by mere inches, which was too lucky, really. They really needed to work on that one.
"Skipping stone!" Astrid yelped the instant there was some distance between Kadru and Archie, while the ground between them was still slicked with water from Archie's water gun.
Jayesh was saying something but Astrid didn't care what, now, on her toes trying to see if this would work...
Archie jumped back a step, then ran, flat-out, as fast as his short Squirtle legs could make him go. He was no Snivy, not in this meadow, but this combo wouldn't work in water anyway, and she knew he could do it...
Pulling his head limbs, and tail in to the tightest withdraw he could, Archie flung himself forward over the rapidly-vanishing puddles. This version of tackle had looked like a cannonball when they'd practiced it, and...
"YES!" Astrid cheered as Archie's shell hit the puddle surface and bounced onward, like a flat rock over water, and slammed into Kadru's narrow midsection. Archie was stopped by the impact, but Kadru had gotten all his momentum and was flung onward like a struck marble.
Kadru was staggering as she got up—no less than Archie as he righted himself, which made Astrid's gaze dart back and forth between them. The disorientation Archie suffered after that special tackle meant it always had to hit, she realized, or he'd be in for a direct hit himself.
Kadru's stagger turned into a sit, though, and she didn't stand up again this time, still visibly dazed from that last impact. She looked over at her trainer, who was dragging himself through the damp grass towards her.
Astrid did likewise, squelching over damp ground towards Archie.
The smell of cut—well, torn—grass and wet earth hung in the air now, and Jay was watching her with wide eyes. "That was amazing," he said.
Astrid didn't answer him, instead leaning down to give Archie his very well-deserved Squirtle-five. He grinned and smacked her palm, and she grabbed his hands and spun him around. He was getting very heavy, she realized.
"Sniiivy!" Kadru said, and Archie looked over at her, blinking tiredly. She was in Jay's arms now, slumped comfortably, tail limp and tired, but her eyes were bright.
"Squirr-rrr-rrr-rr!" Archie replied, and Astrid looked at Jay, sharing an unguarded amused look at their pokemon's apparent friendship.
"Really, that was great," Jay said, as they moved back towards the camp. "Kadru's really agile so I've never really tried to make use of the ground or anything like that."
"Well it's not something that you should do if you don't need to," Astrid replied, "It's not good to..." she remembered one of the teachers' points about flair in battle. "Creativity for the sake of creativity is for stuff like art." Astrid said slowly. "It's good if you need to think fast but if you fight flashy it doesn't mean you're fighting good. Necessarily," she allowed.
"You're so smart," Jay breathed, and Astrid felt her face start to grimace as her annoyance came back all of a sudden.
"Thanks," she said, a bit curt.
Jay's pokemon swarmed over him in a crowd, chattering at him and Kadru both in varying degrees of enthusiasm, chiding, and praise, going by their tones. Archie was met by Clover, who regarded him with a shy sort of amazement. Undeterred by his comparitively lesser reception, Archie just grinned at Clover. The confidence pouring off him seemed to be a little contagious, and Clover stood a bit higher too, even if the glances he kept casting over his shoulder at the battlefield were uncertain.
Thankfully, Astrid managed to separate herself from Jay without much trouble. He had been planning to backtrack a bit, trying to catch an elusive Pansage, and didn't seem to expect that she'd want to do likewise, even if his wistfulness when they parted ways was rather obvious, and she was starting to think... well, anyway. He'd given her the prize money, and wouldn't accept the potion she tried to give him either, shrugging it off, saying that he had plenty anyway, and that his newer teammates needed practice anyhow.
"Take care, you all," he waved a last time, as he and his entourage disappeared into the trees.
"Bye!" she called out, almost despite herself.
"Squirrrrrrr!" Archie added, receiving a chorus of pokemon-noises in reply.
"I guess he's really not that bad," Astrid allowed. Archie and Kadru really did seem to relish the chance to fight each other now, and in a good way.
Well, anyway. Onward now. She was almost home. Through this forest were Mom and Dad, Nina and Benny... almost there!