Chapter 3: First Battle
I wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
To catch them is my real test
To train them is my cause
I will travel across the land
Searching far and wide
Each Pokemon to understand
The power that's inside
Pokemon!
It's you and me
I know it's my destiny
Pokemon!
Ooh, you're my best friend
In a world we must defend
Pokemon!
Our hearts so true
Our courage will pull us through
You teach me and I'll teach you
Pokemon
Gotta catch 'em all!
A second glance revealed Lexa to her, another woman walking beside her, an Umbreon on the woman's heels.
"Lexa!" Maki called, waving and grinning. Maki rushed up to her friend.
"Maki!" Lexa cried, slamming into Maki, arms wide open. Miraculously, mew remained firmly attached to Lexa's head, eyes bright. "You made it!"
"Yeah! Sorry I'm late! I overslept! I didn't get up until 12:30…" Maki apologized, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment.
"12:30?" Lexa asked, stepping back. "It's only just after ten."
"Err…" Maki glanced briefly at her bag where the Celebi resided then amended her story, "I meant 9:30. I ran here. Guess I'm still half-asleep aha. Ha."
Lexa looked Maki up and down. "Uh huh."
"Mew!" trilled the pokemon on her shoulder. Lexa shot her a look. "Mew..owth," Mew amended.
Maki looked at the meowth on her friend's shoulder suspiciously, then shook her head and continued, "Anyway, I brought an extra map for you. Oh! And Professor Hawthorn gave me your pokedex. That's what you get for getting up early and being in such a hurry," Maki mock-scolded while she dug in her bag for the two objects, careful not to disturb the oddish she still cradled in her arm.
Lexa smacked her forehead with one hand and accepted the items. "Thanks. Oh, Maki, Maki! This is Mara." Her eevee sat at Maki's feet, staring up with wide eyes. It mouthed soundlessly at her friend.
Maki's eyes went wide, "Where?!" was the only thing she could utter.
Mara laughed, Eclipse joined its trainer in her mirth. "Follow me."
Makoto wordlessly obeyed, following the woman and umbreon to the back of the gym where a fenced in area contained numerous eevee, playing and rolling about in the grass. Maki's eyes went wide taking in the sight.
"Go ahead, pick one," Mara told her with a grin. Makoto looked at her with still wide eyes then her face split in a grin and she turned back to the eevee, scanning over all of them. Her eyes landed on one who was sitting by himself near the edge, looking out into the world beyond his fenced in play area.
Maki walked over and squatted next to him. The eevee looked her over then seemed to feel that the girl suited him fine as he stood and walked over to her and rubbed against her knee then leapt deftly up onto her shoulder. Maki scratched him gently behind the ears before standing again and headed back toward Lexa and Mara.
"Thank you so much Mara. I've dreamed of having an eevee since…well…since I've known what pokemon were practically."
Mara laughed, "It's nothing, really. We normally give them to new trainers. Plus I'm sure you two will take good care of the eevee."
"We will! Come on, Maki!" Lexa tugged on the other girl's shirtsleeve. "Thanks again!" Mara waved briefly and knelt before her umbreon, but the two were too far out of earshot to hear what trainer and pokemon discussed.
They made an immediate beeline to the pokeshop to restock necessary supplies, both laughing at inside jokes and ridiculous concepts. Mew sat happily on her shoulder the entire time, giggling appropriately or whenever she pleased.
"So, I think there are some things we should discuss," Lexa started as soon as they left the outskirts of town, heading towards the next town. However, before either could say more, mew shrieked and vanished under Lexa's hood and into her coat.
Maki and Lexa started and looked around warily. A small group of people stood not too far away, gathered around something small and blue on the ground. Said pokemon was making weak noises of distress.
The girls narrowed their eyes at the group and Lexa began angrily approaching the group, not really thinking her actions through before hand. Maki grabbed after Lexa, but was a step behind, and thus ended up stumbling after her friend, reaching desperately after, hands closing solely on air.
"Hey!" Lexa snapped at the nearest person. "What do you think you are doing?"
He seized her up before shoving roughly aside. "Get lost, kid."
Lexa rubbed her forehead. Not at all dissuaded and ignoring Maki's protests, she unhitched a pokeball from her belt. The man looked several years her senior and simply laughed.
"Don't you listen? No? Well, bring it, kid," he said, stepping away from his friends.
The ball in Lexa's hand exploded open with an ear splitting screech at the man's words. The golden pidgey flew angrily into the nearest person's face and viciously explained its feelings in a raucous series of furious shrieks and buffeting feathers. Blessed by this instant of distraction, Lexa snatched the ill pokemon by the tail and pulled it close to her chest while the group was momentarily stunned.
"Pidgey!" she yelled at it once she stood safely by Maki's side again. The bird whirled around to face her, fury in its eyes.
"Pidgey!" it screamed back at her.
Recovering, the man sent out his own pokemon. "Houndour!" His groupmates sidled up next to him, imposing and hefting pokeballs of their own.
The dog pokemon leapt forward from the ball, fangs bared and ears folded back.
"Pidgey, behind you!" Lexa yelled at the disobedient pokemon. Its long-winded accusation came to a screeching halt when ember hit it full on in the back. The pokemon in her arms twitched feebly and murmured. "…Seaa…"
"Gust!" she commanded her pidgey when the hound readied another fire attack. Giving her a look that said their quarrel was not over yet, the bird spun to face this new threat. Golden wings flashing, pidgey blew hot embers back in Houndour's face, forcing the dog back. While the dog took a moment to paw hot sparks from its face, the pidgey made a diving tackle from the air, unbalancing the dog. Houndour yelped and flipped to its feet, not finished yet.
"Maki," Lexa whispered. "They kind of outnumber us. I don't know what to do…"
Pidgey crowed victoriously when the houndour took several faltering steps before collapsing on the ground. The man called his fainted pokemon back into its pokeball and one of his friends stepped forward.
"Well done, but do you think you can take us all on?" The girl stood with one hand on her hip, head tilted and eyes narrowed. "Give us back our horsea and we'll think nothing of it."
Lexa could only shake her head wordlessly, but pidgey had other plans. Lexa did not know what the bird said, but chances were it was nothing close to a friendly comment on the other girl's outfit. Face reddening, the other girl tossed her pokeball into the air, releasing a large floating pokemon in a flash of red light.
"Weezing," it coughed.
"Well, shit," Maki whispered.
"Agreed. Let's run," Lexa hissed back, scooping her frozen eevee up and holding both the eevee and the horsea in her arms.
Maki grasped her oddish tightly in her arms as her newly obtained eevee dug his claws into her clothes to hold onto her shoulder, then began backing away from the oncoming trainers, all of whom looked both impatient and pissed, pulling out pokeballs.
Maki stumbled backward slightly then, as if they had rehearsed it, both Lexa and Maki whipped around and began sprinting away as quickly as possible. Lexa's pidgey was still cawing angrily at the menacing trainers behind them, much more interested in clipping them in the faces with her wings then running away. Lexa called back to the pokemon but it ignored her.
A loud shriek resounded behind them but Lexa and Maki didn't stop to turn and look, they just kept sprinting.
Maki looked up from her pounding feet then skidded to a stop, Lexa doing the same at her side. Before them were two more of the menacing trainers. Lexa and Maki looked at each other panicked, they didn't have any pokemon on them that were ready for this.
"Hand over the pokemon brats, and we won't thrash you too hard," one trainer warned. Maki and Lexa shook their heads, pushing their pokemon behind them. "No? Don't say we didn't warn you," the trainer said cruelly. Before the two trainers could do anything though a cracking noise split the air. In unison Lexa and Maki looked at their bags, slid the eggs gently out, looked at each other then rolled the eggs toward the feet of their enemies.
"What the hell?" the other trainer demanded as they leaned over and picked up the eggs, then laughed. "Eggs? Glad to see you're starting to see it our wa—" the trainer began then the eggs exploded, one expelling flames into one trainers face and whipping vines in the other. The two gave loud cries then dropped the eggs.
The eggs cracked open all the way and two young pokemon rolled out.
"Bulbasaur…" the grass-pokemon said.
"Chaaaar," the other pokemon agreed as they both got to their feet, facing off against the recovering enemy trainers.
Maki couldn't help but give a happy cry, "All right! Bulbasaur!" while pumping her right arm in the air.
However, their victory was short lived as both trainers pitched pokeballs forward. A furret and a noctowl landed before both newly hatched pokemon. Charmander maneuvered his way between the noctowl and the bulbasaur, instinctually covering his companion's weakness.
"Kasdeya, ember!" Lexa commanded in unison with Maki's "Vine whip!"
The flame on the pokemon's tail grew brighter. "Chaaar!" Kasdeya cried, unleashing a stream of hot embers at the flying pokemon, forcing the noctowl to bank away.
The bulbasaur's vine whip hurtled toward the furret, the normal type pokemon managing to dodge the first attempt but the second landed, knocking the furret onto its side. The furret quickly leapt back up looking annoyed.
"Furret, slam the bulbasaur!" the trainer commanded and the furret was quick to obey, quickly closing the distance between itself and Maki's bulbasaur. It was too quick for either Maki or the bulbasaur to do anything and the grass-pokemon was sent head over heels backward as Maki winced.
"Bulbasaur you alright?" Maki asked and the bulbasaur struggled back to its feet.
Meanwhile Lexa and her charmander did not seem to be faring much better.
"Noctowl, hypnosis!" the noctowl's trainer commanded when Kasdeya's ember attack ended. The noctowl hooted and turned its luminous eyes on the charmander in question. A moment later Kasdeya feel to a knee before slowly pushing itself back up, looking a little worse for wear.
Maki hated to admit it, but they were still pretty unmatched—their pokemon had just hatched over all.
The opposing trainers raised their hands, issuing their next command in unison: "Noctowl, Confusion!" "Furret, tackle!"
The two pokemon bore down on the recently hatched starters when the battlefield was suddenly rent with a terrible cry. A golden flash swooped before the opposing trainers, right past the oncoming noctowl and furret. When the flash was gone the noctowl and furret were strewn on the ground, eyes swirling dizzily, the pokemon no longer fit to battle.
"…what…" Lexa began.
"…was that?" Maki finished for her friend as the trainers opposite them looked annoyed.
"What the hell was that?!" one demanded as they both craned their necks trying to spot the golden interruption.
Lexa spotted it then, doing a victory lap around the field, looking quite satisfied with itself, and her jaw dropped. "No…way…"
"Pidgeyoooo!" it called, circling back around to hover at Lexa's shoulder, powerful wings keeping it aloft.
They turned simultaneously around to see the original passé clambering to their feet and dusting themselves off. Eye contact was made and both Maki and Lexa spun in sync, backs rigid.
"Let's go now?" Lexa asked, eyes straight ahead.
"Oh yeah," Maki agreed.
Pidgeotto continued to voice its opinion at the group members, ignoring the fact that everyone else was leaving as fast as possible.
"Pidgeotto!" Lexa hissed, fingers managing to tug on a wingtip.
"Eh?" the bird seemed to say.
"Let's go!"
They pushed past the disbelieving trainers and booked it towards Fernspring as though all the denizens of hell were on their heels. Not resting until the safety of the pokecenter was assured when they closed the doors behind them, they rested against the inside of the building briefly to catch their breath.
A sudden pecking at the glass door startled Lexa, she had totally forgotten to recall pidgeotto. She opened the door and the bird pokemon zoomed in, looking extremely pleased with itself. It landed on the counter and puffed itself up, preening its golden feathers. A stunned woman behind the counter looked from the pokemon to its trainer.
