"A battle? Already?" Izzy questioned, "We only just got our pokemon, we don't know anything about them yet."
"And how are we supposed to learn without experience?" Jackie countered before turning to Jamie, "So, you up for it?"
Jamie bit the inside of her cheek. She didn't really want her first real communication with her pokemon to be a battle, but she didn't want to give Jackie the satisfaction of backing down. She knew that now matter how she phrased it, Jackie would leave believing that she had intimidated them.
'And who knows,' Jamie thought as she gave Jackie a nod to accept his challenge, 'Maybe I'll even win.'
She smirked, sending out her Bullburn against Jamie's Canoptera. The two pokemon looked around, seeming surprised.
Jamie didn't blame them. Most trainers took the time to at least introduce themselves to their pokemon before they brought them into battle. They adjusted quickly though, both bracing themselves to begin.
Jackie had her Bullburn charge Jamie's Canoptera directly, the grass type being instructed to jump overhead to avoid it.
The Canoptera's strong jumping skills let them clear the Bullburn's charge without taking any damage, landing behind them and, at Jamie's call, turning on their balls to rake their claws against the Bullburn's back to damage it.
Jamie's happiness at seeing this carried out successfully didn't last long though. Jackie called to her Bullburn to exploit their type difference. The Bullburn's tail reached out and wrapped around the Canoptera's waist, the flame at the end growing to encompass the entire thing and enveloping the grass type in fire.
They yelped in pain, struggling to pull away. They managed to break away from the Bullburn's tail, but the fire damage already had them staggering. The Bullburn needed only turn around and tackle them down to finish them off.
Jamie, having started to draw blood from the inside of her cheek by biting it, called to the Canoptera again. She'd lost any hope that she might win this match, but she wasn't gonna let Jackie think it had been a sweep.
At her order, the grass type starter used bounced again, leaping into the air and avoiding the close range tackle. This caused the Bullburn to trip and land hard on the ground.
Rather than use the bounce to simply avoid the attack though, this time they used it to damage as well, the Canoptera landing hard on the Bullburn's back, knocking the wind out of it.
Jackie visibly winced at this, and as bad as she felt it sounded, Jamie was actually kinda glad to see this; it told her that Jackie did at least care for her new pokemon. The damage didn't win the match though, the Canoptera collapsing shortly afterwards to the ground, unconscious while the Bullburn had simply been damaged.
"I won't charge you for losing since you're a beginner." Jackie gloated as she recalled her Bullburn.
"We're all beginners," Izzy pointed out as Jamie recalled her Canoptera, "And you only won because of type advantage. That's why you challenged Jamie first, isn't it?"
Jackie snorted, "I challenged both of you, I'll gladly battle you to just as soon as Auburn is healed up." She said, having evidently already named her Bullburn.
Izzy couldn't really argue this point, it wouldn't really be fair to make them fight right away when they had visibly taken damage. The trio hurried back into town to Jackie and Jamie's starters healed.
There was a semi-awkward silence from the lingering challenge in the air as the two pokemon were healed. As soon as the Nurse Joy returned them, the three returned to the edge of town, this time Izzy facing down Jackie.
Jamie sat down at the sidelines, letting out her Canoptera to introduce herself properly. The grass type stretched out her tiny limbs upon appearing, and when she saw her trainer, she frowned. Jamie was worried at this response, fearing that her starter was disappointed in her for losing the match.
But as Izzy's match with Jackie began, and the Cantopera hugged Jamie's waist, it became clear that the opposite was true; she was worried that Jamie would be disappointed in her.
Jamie picked her up, hugging her back properly and whispering to her not to worry, "It was just one battle," She said, "One we weren't ready for. We'll just need to be ready in the future, right?"
"Cah!" The Canoptera agreed. Jamie smiled, "How about.. Spring?" She smiled, nodding approvingly at the name.
This sorted, the two turned their focus back to the battle. Izzy's Bubbloot had the size advantage over Auburn, but Auburn had the speed advantage. The Bubbloot had already used its ability to freeze the water in its tail. All they needed was on hit and it would be over.
But Jackie made sure Auburn stayed out of range, the fire type not giving the Bubbloot time to land the hit. Tackle, jump back, tackle, roll, tackle, dive forward.
They didn't dodge the same way twice, leaving Izzy and the Bubbloot with nothing to do but guess which way to aim the attack. This yielded no success though, the water type-in spite of the typing advantage-was defeated; death by a thousand cuts style. Jamie could see Jackie trying to suppress her excitement. Even she hadn't been fully sure she would win.
She patted Auburn's head affectionately before recalling him, "What was that about all of us being beginners?" Jackie asked with a laugh before sauntering off down the trail.
Izzy, frowning, recalled her Bubbloot, and headed back into town to get her starter healed, the walk of shame as it was called.
Jamie followed after her, wanting to reassure her friend. They'd lost today sure, but they couldn't let it get them down. They wouldn't get any better if they did, and if they didn't get any better, how could they shove Jackie's ego down her throat later?
This got a giggle out of Izzy, as intended. Once she got her starter back healed, and officially dubbed him Morag, the four of them set out together to start their journey.
No new pokemon in this chapter, so no one to credit. On that note, while I have already compiled a rather hefty list, feel free to recommend any fakemon you'd like to see in the reviews ^^
Also, if you're reading this within the first week of it being posted, then there is a poll going on for sinfulnature1123 patrons to determine which stories I focus on going forward. If you like this story and would like to see it continued, don't like it and would like to vote against it, want to earn your own story requests, or just want to support the writing, consider becoming a sinfulnature1123 patron.