Whoa, out of all the chapters I've ever written, this one needed the most help, but it was worth it! This one is worlds better than my first attempt and it's now precious to me. Obvious to say, this is now one of my favorite chapters. Enjoy!

Chapter 2: First Battle

Shortly after Sky and his newly met friend, Pearl, departed from Silver City and it's playground, they walked a dirt road that lead to the entrance of the forest Pearl had told Sky was called Silver Forest. Only beyond multiple trees and the brushes of foliage did the area begin to seem like a forest. Although quiet, Sky cold tell it was a forest simply due to the abundant bird chirps, dense, dark green bushes and tall grass, and what seemed to be an endless sea of trees. Eventually, Pearl led Sky to what seemed to be a less dense section of the forest, with trees that allowed more sunlight through, and finally a grassy plain with only few trees and bushes.

The blonde stopped a short distance past Sky and made a brief examination of the area before she ws certain where they were.

"Yep, this is it... my very own place in the forest," Pear reported to Sky cheerily while smiling at him.

Sky didn't bother with observing the small sectioned off grass-land he was in and he honestly didn't care. "Yeah. Nice." the brown-haired one said flatly then drew a PokeBall, "Can we battle now?"

Pearl sighed, "I bet your one who always rushes into things without giving anything a second thought, or taking the time to smell the roses..." Pearl deduced from Sky's rash actions since she had met him. "It's kind of easy to tell.."

Sky ignored Pearl's remark with an uncaring shrug, and held forward the PokeBall he drew with a small grin. "Call it a bad habit." Sky said, then tossed the red and white sphere into the air, "Let's go, Spike!" the young trainer called and in a flash of red light, Spike was released form his Pokeball standing in front of Sky.

Feeling lush, cool grass beneath his feet, Spike realized he was in a forest and usurely checked his surrounding by glancing back and forth, wondering how he came to be there. 'Man, I hate those ball thingies... you never know where they'll send you next...'

Pearl let out another sigh after she realized his mind was set to battling a drew a Pokeball from a small clip that attached the sphere to blue shorts, followed by throwing it into the air, "Rookies are always way too eager to take a loss. C'mon out, Flora!" the blonde called before a small light-greenish like Pokemon that almost resembled a dog, with bright cherry colored eyes and dark green buds circling it's neck in a necklace fashion, and finally a rather large dark green leaf on it's head was released into the forest clearing.

"Chika!" the small green Pokemon cried excitedly and pranced around in front of Pearl.

Sky instantly recognized the Pokemon as a Chikorita as it was from the same starter set as his favorite Pokemon, that happened to be lollygagging in front of him at that very moment.

"Okay, she's using a Chikorita," Sky rationalized, then looked down at Spike, "we have a type disadvantage... get ready, Spike!" Sky said, and Spike looked at him questionably, then at Pearl and her Chikorita. "All right, so ready?" he inferred with a small grin of excitement.

Pearl nodded and folded her arms along her light green tee shirt, also grinning except her's with more confidence rather than excitement. Pearl's Chikorita smirked competitively while spinning it's leaf about in a threatening matter. "When you are," she spoke as confidently as she looked.

"Let's go!!" Both trainers shouted in unison, and began the battle.

The battle began with Pearl's Chikorita glaring down Spike, which surprised the Totodile since he didn't recall doing anything to cross the Chikorita or it's trainer. Though like the many Pokemon he had battled at the swamp before capture, Spike knew this meant a battle and began returning the glare.

"Flora, use Tackle!" Pearl gave the first order and pointed forward.

Spike simply stood his ground, bracing himself for the impact while the Chikorita charged for him on a collision course. The Chikorita rammed into Spike, though the gator was able to take the hit without hardly budging, but leaving the Chikorita in close range.

"Now, Spike, use Scratch!" Sky ordered quickly to take advantage of the Chikorita's proximity to Spike.

Spike questioned mentally whether he should listen to Sky or not, but since his gut told him Sky could be trusted, Spike lifted his arm quickly, took aim for only a second, then grazed the left side of the Chikorita's face with a quick swipe.

The Chikorita yelped and fell to the ground, Spike's attack leaving three small, minor slash marks, though the Chikorita quickly returned to it's feet.

Sky was surprised with Spike's strength, "Whoa, nice shot, Spike!" the brown-haired trainer congratulated his Pokemon cheerily, and Spike gave a toothy smile in return.

"Not bad... but we're not done yet!" Pearl stated.

"We're not done either! Let's show 'em another Scratch attack, Spike." Sky said calmly with the slightest sign of over confidence.

Spike nodded before lifting up a claw and charging towards the Chikorita, shouting a battle cry while running.

"Okay, Flora! Dodge, then use the tree for another Tackle attack!" Pearl counted quickly.

Flora stood her ground as Spike did; carefully watching how close she allowed Spike to get, before as Spike approached her and swung his claw in a downwards motion, Flora hopped backwards, then leapt onto a tree and jumped from the trunk and into Spike, the Chikorita's head viciously butting into Spike's.

Spike wailed in pain, and was knocked backwards and off his feet, followed by tumbling backwards.

Sky felt a pang of alarm, "Hey! Spike, are you okay?" the trainer called out worringly to his Pokemon.

"Yeah! Good job, Flora!" Pearl celebrated, deciding Spike was unconscious, and Flora turned around and cried out happily to her trainer.

Suddenly, Spike jumped back to his feet, hopping from one foot to the other as he held where Flora had head-butted him while crying out an onslaught of continuous 'totos'.

"Awesome, you're still up!" Sky cheered, relieved they hadn't lost yet.

Once the pain settled and he stopped jumping, Spike gave an angry cry in response to Sky, then turned to glare at the Chikorita. "Okay, NOW I'm mad," the small alligator fumed furiously.

Pearl turned around after hearing Sky's voice and saw Spike was still conscious. "Huh? Not down yet?" The blonde said, "Okay, then use one more Tackle, Flora!" Pearl ordered again.

As ordered, the Chikorita began another charge towards Spike, and while it ran, Sky noticed something he and Spike could use to their advantage.

"Spike, try for the leaf!" Sky called and pointed towards the large piece of darkgreen foliage waving in the running Chikorita's wake.

Spike took one glance and quickly caught on and waited for the Chikorita to run close enough, and then once Flora was less than two feet away, Spike hopped to his right, followed by grabbing onto the Chikorita's leaf.

"CHIKA!!" Flora screeched in pain as she was forcefully stopped in the middle of her charge and held onto by Spike.

"What!?" Pearl exclaimed in shock and was surprised.

"All right! It worked!" Sky cheered excitedly, "Now Spike, send it sailing!" Sky gave the enthusiastically confident order and thrust a fist forward.

Before Spike did, he grinned a devious grin which worried Flora, then, Spike began spinning faster with rising speed to build momentum, before finally letting go and sending a screaming Flora sailing meters away until she collided into a tree with a loud crash and even louder cry from the Chikorita.

Sky slowly began to feel regretful, "Maybe you overdid it a little..." the trainer said, unsurely, however, Spike was busy dancing happily to celebrate the victory he knew he and Sky had after the crash.

The Chikorita let out a few very weak cries while trying to stand up, but fell back down and slipped into unconsciousness.

"Flora!!" Pearl cried out in worry and rushed to the fallen Chikorita.

Sky now felt a sudden pang of worry hit him, "Uh-oh..." he mumbled, worried he and Spike may have seriously hurt Flora.

Pearl stopped in front of her Chikorita and knelt beside her, then began carefully examing her for any broken bones or fractures. Finally, Pearl was relieved when she found Flora was okay and just unconscious. "Okay, nothing's broken..." Pearl said before the blonde returned Flora to her PokeBall. "You deserve a nice rest now." She said to the PokeBall Flora was in before reattaching it to her shorts and standing up.

Sky sighed, deeply relieved Pearl's Chikorita was okay. "That was almost too close..." he said still relieved, then it hit him, "Wait a minute... This means.. WE WON!!" Sky shouted, loudly in joy. Simply overjoyed, he and Spike had won they're first battle, and Sky joined in on Spike's celebration dance.

Standing by for a short time to cope with her loss, Pearl sighed and eventually headed towards Sky and Spike. "I seriously feel sorry for nearly any Pokemon that will have to face your Totodile." the blonde said to Sky and put on a smile, and Sky stopped dancing to pay attention, "But anyway, good match. Your totodile is really strong," Pearl admitted. 'Should've known, the way it wreaked that slide!'

Sky laughed an excited and proud laugh and folded his hands behind his head, and rested them against his spiky brown hair. "Yeah, thanks. Your Chikorita is pretty strong, too!" Sky returned the compliment.

Pearl smiled again, "Thanks, but next time we won't lose!" the blonde declared, still with a highly competitive spirit.

Sky grinned, "We'll see!"