After April's challenge her and her and her purple haired friend split off from the group and moved to one of the battlefields. Her friend, who was named Jacob, decided to spectate and judge if needed. "I think it's time you learned to be careful!"
I sighed. "I already said I'm sorry and you know that I didn't mean to knock you down."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm just making things interesting." she grinned and took out a pokeball. "Alright, one on one right? You're not just some advanced trainer that acts like he has one pokemon right?"
"I've never even heard of someone doing that." I set my bag down and Zori climbed out and stretched her legs before running onto the field. "Ready to go Zori!"
"Rua!" she nodded and a big grin spread across her face as she took a combat stance.
"Let's let 'em have it Riley!" as she said this she released a small, triangle-shaped pokemon. The Snorunt was slightly smaller than normal and had a determined expression on his face. "Ru sn snowrunt!" It looked strong, but him and April simply don't know each other as well as me and Zori.
I nodded and the other kid said the usual referee nonsense. "Ladies first." I called across the field.
She smirked. "Oh, so now you're a gentlemen."
I sighed. "Look I said I was sorry, now just let it go and lets battle already."
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Riley use Leer!" At command, he narrowed his eyes and a second later, they flashed open in a bright, silver light. Zori covered her eyes with her front paw. Clearly she was disoriented, but she's still far from done.
"Zori, use Scratch!" She jumped forward, baring her front claws, and pushed the snorunt back as they dragged across him.
"Powder Snow!" Riley slash forward and released wave of snow across Zori's face. She shivered and rubbed her face while taking a step back. "Zori, Scratch again!" She looked back at me annoyed, but knew to trust me. She jumped forward again, claws outstretched.
"Dodge!" The snorunt jumped backwards.
"Zori, Pursuit!" Soon after Riley landed, Zori hit him to April's side of field cloaked in a dark aura. Already off balance from the dodge, the small-triangular pokemon took the fall even harder. "Great job Zori!"
"Zo zorua!" She smirked at
"C'mon Riley just hang in there! I don't want to lose our first battle!" He stood up, cringing as he did so. "Use Double Team!"
Focusing for a second with his eyes closed several other identical snorunts appeared around him.
"Now circle her and use Powder Snow!" Snorunt and his clones ran forward and, despite Zori's attempt to escape the snow and cold, surrounded her and covered her with powdery snow.
"Zori, you okay?"
She shook herself out of the snow and shivered. Her eyes were droopy and she was shivering. A lot. "Z-zo Zor-ru a." She nodded and stared at the snorunt army around her.
"You got this Zori, just pay attention! They might look the same, but one is hurt! Try using Scratch!" She nodded and dived toward the row of Rileys.
"Dodge!" The ring jumped back and landed safely. Except for one of them.
"There Zori! Use Pursuit!" Zori dove after the injured snorunt, a dark aura chasing after her. The clones faded away as Riley was knocked back to the sideline towards her trainer's friend. But this time, he didn't get up.
"This match goes to Mike Synopsis."
"Shinobi." I corrected him.
"Whatever." He picked up snorunt and carried him back over to April who ran and met him halfway. She took him in her arms and whispered something to him before returning him to his pokeball. She walked over to me as I picked a tired and cold Zori up.
"Who are you?" her eyes closed in on me.
"I told you. I'm Mike Shinobi" I said coolly.
She smiled. Not a smirk or laugh, but a legitimate smile. "The names April Bend." as she said this, she extended her hand. I took it in mine as Zori walked up to her, covered in dirt and bruises. "Hehe, how are you Zori?" she extended her hand to Zori.
Zori, with her usual snicker, transformed into April and- er well April's- hand to April. Of course, when April took her hand, Zori became her usual fox self. April, much more calm than earlier, let out a little giggle. "She's cute. You two work together really well, did you know her before today?"
"Yeah we've known each other for four years, but we never did a lot of training. Mainly we just walked around the city, doing tricks and exploring."
"Four years... Ha, know wonder I lost. I just met Riley today. In fact, that was my first battle...and defeat." her eyes turned downward at that last statement.
"Hey, don't be hard on yourself. You just got a new partner and almost beat people who have known each other for nearly half a decade." I turned to look at her friend. "What's your name?"
"Jacob Reed" He stared me down for a moment, an unreadable expression on his face. I extended my hand to him and he grabbed it very firmly to say the least. He turned back to her a second later, apparently done with me. "We need to get going. Daniel and the others will be waiting."
"Right. Hey Mike...Do you want to come with us?"
I was taken aback a little bit, but, seeing as I had no one else to travel with...
"Ummm... I guess. I don't really have anyone else to travel with."
Jacob sighed. "Fine Simon can come, but we have to go." he said angrily.
"It's Shinobi." I said annoyed.
He took a step towards me, practically nose to nose. "You want to come with us and then you insult me? Who do you think you are?"
"Mike. Shinobi." I growled.
"I know what your fucking name is!" He pushed me and stormed off. April took a step toward me.
"Ummm... I'm sorry about that. He really is a nice person, but... I really don't know what came over him there... Anyway, come on. I'm sure everyone else will be glad to meet you."
"Yeah I don't know about him, but you seem cool. Before we go we should hit the PokeCenter to heal up."
"Yeah good call. If only we had actually thought of meeting up there after we left the school where we would most likely battle other rookies." she smirked and started off toward the exit.
"Hey, no need to be smart about it." I turned and followed her
"Well, you might be the better battler, but that doesn't mean you're smarter than me." As she said this we pasted the school gate and continued toward the PokeCenter.
"I never said that!"
She giggled a little in a way that reminded me of Zori and I blushed. "Relax. I know we've just met, but you'll find out I have very weird sense of humor." And, as if on queue, Zori poked her way out of my bag. "Ru a zor." as she said that, she rubbed up against my leg. Her stomach growled and I realized just how late it was in the day.
"Hey, genius, what do you want to do about lunch? We aren't on the road yet, so there's no point in fixing our own stuff."
Now it was her turn to blush. "Well, I mean- I'm sure that Daniel will figure it out."
"No idea, huh?" I sighed. "Me neither."
We continued to walk in silence across town until Zori got tired. I stopped for a second and picked her up in my arms. Since it was hotter out I decided against putting in her inside the hot, black bag. A few minutes later we passed my house. I stopped a minute and went up to the door out of habit, but I stopped myself before I went in. Embarrassed, I turned back around to see a very confused April. Not wanting to explain my awkwardness, I walked on in silence.
A few minutes after that, we finally reached the PokeCenter to see a small crowd of three waiting outside. First I noticed Jacob. He was much calmer looking than earlier.
Beside him was a girl with jet black hair and a pink sunhat. She was wearing a short, light blue skirt and her skin was milky and flawless. Her shirt was a matching light blue and she had on a yellow waistband. Her legs poked out and led down to a pair of blue knee socks and black shoes. Under her sunhat long blonde hair flowed down her shoulders and past her hazel eyes.
Finally, there was a guy with his back to me. He had red blood red hair and a black jacket on. "Hey Daniel, Jacob, Luna!" April called to them. Tho others looked up and, the guy who must be Daniel, turned around. His eyes were blue and full of determination. Beneath his thin jacket was a red shirt and he had on a pair black cargo pants. He had a black baseball cap with a red pokeball and a very clean raven claw.
"That's the guy she found Dan." Jacob said to him, happiness gone.
"This is the guy?" he said and pointed at me. He reached out and shook my hand, his grip much nicer than Jacob's. He had a pretty big smile on his face and he seemed friendly enough. "Nice to meet ya, the names Dan!"
"As I'm sure Jacob here has told you the name's Mike."
No soon had we let go of our hands, Daniel was pushed out of the way and replaced by a very cuddly girl in blue. Her arms trapped mine to my side and she was surprisingly strong. "Oh my god! Your some cute and handsome! My name's Luna!." She opened her eyes and looked up at me. She let go of me and I let out a breath I didn't realize I had. "Sorry about that I've been told I'm a little aggressive." She blushed a little bit and stepped back.
Dan stepped back up in front of me. "Yeah, just a little bit Luna." He sighed. "Anyway, Jacob here ways you are pretty good a battling and that you were about to travel alone?"
"Yeah, I never really got close to a lot of people at school."
"Yeah we never really saw you around after school." Jacob piped in. "What did you do? We were all in the pokemon extras class."
"I went to the PokeShelter to play with Zori and the other pokemon there." Hearing her name Zori woke up from her nap and hopped to the ground to stretch her legs. However, before she hit the ground, Luna picked her up in a death hug similar to mine.
"SHE"S SO CUTE!" she squealed. "What an adorable dark, trick fox, and, and, I LOVE HER!"
Zori squirmed out of her arms and ran behind me, pouting. "Oh, come on Zori be nice!" I picked her back up and put her down in front of me. "Anyway, I spent, like, all of my time with her. See I met her..." I continued to tell them about how I met Zori and Jacob, obviously not caring, went and healed everyone's pokemon for them. Including Zori, surprisingly.
After I was done, Jacob broke the silence. "So, are we going to travel with this guy or what?"
"He seems cool and its always the more the merrier. But," Daniel said,"We are going to have a little battle first, okay Mike?"
"I guess. Zori and I are always ready, right girl?" She snickered and nodded. "Point to a field and we're ready to go."
"This is so exciting!" Luna cried. "There's a field at the back of the PokeCenter. C'mon!" The hyper girl sprinted toward the back of the center. The rest of us followed her to the back.
Sure enough, there was a field at the back of the center and Luna was already waiting at the sideline. Daniel walked to the other end of the field, pokeball in hand, and April stepped up as the ref. She gave the usual ref speech and we sent out our pokemon. I obviously sent out Zori and awaited Daniel's pokemon. But I didn't have to wait long.
"Take to the air Tuesday!" he said as he threw out his pokeball. Tuesday was a small starly and was, quiet frankly, not intimidating. The small bird soared into the air and the battle officially commenced. "First move's yours Mike!" he yelled.
"Fine by me! Zori use Leer!" Zori's eyes glowed similarly to Riley's earlier and Tuesday flew closer to the ground.
"Defend your territory! Use Growl." Tuesday shook her head and let out a loud chirp as Zori grew close, scaring her off. "Now use tackle!" Tuesday dove down level to the ground and slammed into Zori. She slid across the field on her side and shakily stood back up. The fight had just started, but this tiny bird has a lot of power behind her.
"Careful Zori! She's faster than you!"
"Tuesday use Quick Attack!" Tuesday dived down in a white blaze, spinning as she came down. She barely clipped Zori before she got out of the way, knocking her off balance.
"Zori use Pursuit!" Before Tuesday took back off, Zori caught up surrounded in a black haze and jumped on her back, sending her face first into the ground. Tuesday tumbled a little bit before shaking herself back up.
"Up Tuesday!" Dan cried.
"Zori, stay on her!" Both pokemon followed commands perfectly, but, despite Zori's effort to pin Tuesday down, she slipped away and took back off.
"Good job Tuesday! Now dive!" On command, the faithful bird let out a deafening cry and took a drop toward Zori.
"Get ready Zori!" Zori braced herself to jump on the bird.
"Pull up and use Spinning Tackle!" I began panicking. Spinning Tackle? What is that? I didn't have to wait long. Tuesday pulled up and began spinning as she went. When she reached Zori her spinning wing slammed into her and drove her up and across the field. When the dust cleared and Tuesday landed, it was clear that Zori lost.
April called out her only command the entire match. "Zori is unable to battle! Daniel Bonner is th-"
"Oh gosh are you okay Zori!?" Luna cried as she sprinted onto the field. Before I could stop her, she grabbed Zori and sprinted into the pokecenter. We followed her inside with Tuesday riding on Dan's shoulder. "NURSE!" Luna was screaming at the top of her lungs for the nurse to come over to her. The nurse came sprinting down the stairs above and and quickly grabbed Zori. She ran Zori through some testing before handing her back to Luna, asleep.
"Ma'am, though I am happy that you knew to come to me, you do realize that this pokemon was not seriously injured? She was merely unconscious and was in no danger!" she said slightly annoyed.
"Thank you nurse!" she said ignoring the poor nurse's questions. "Hey guys! Zori's great now!"
Jacob sighed. "Great, now lets get going!"
Ignoring him I turned back to Dan as he handed Tuesday off to the very annoyed nurse. "Tuesday is actually really clever. How did you meet her?"
"My aunt and uncle raise and breed bird pokemon. They raised her from an egg and thought she'd be perfect for me, and she has been."
"That's actually really cool." I took a sleepy Zori back from Luna. I thought back to how I found Zori and wondered, once again where she came from, but for now I ignored such thoughts. "She was surprisingly tough despite her size."
He smiled. "Actually her size is an advantage. It makes her light weight, harder to see, and faster."
"Hmm. I guess that makes sense."
"GUYS!" Jacob yelled annoyed. Everyone turned to look at him and glared angrily. "Let's go! I want to get out of the stupid place and just- just leave."
Luna was the first one to speak up after several seconds. "Jacob, dude, you need to chill out."
"What do you know sis!" he snapped.
"Dude if you can't chill out you're going to have to leave." April said.
"Guys, we have to take him." Daniel said. "He's one of us, but they are right Jacob, you need to chill out."
"No, you know what, screw it and screw you all!"
"Jacob what the hell is wrong with you." Luna cried.
"Nothing's wrong with me! I just hate sitting here alright!"
"No d-ude, there is something going on and, unless you're going to tell us, you're not coming with us!" April said.
"Fine, I'll go by myself on my own journey! C'mon Luna." he said as grabbed her wrist."
"No way! The way you're acting now is insane and I'm not coming with you."
"But sis-"
"But nothing! Leave or get yourself together."
"Fine then!" he said as tears rolled down his face. "Screw all of you then!"
With that he stormed out, hands over eyes out into the world.