A/N: I don't own anything other than the OCs and plot.

Chapter Two

The First Battle

The walk from route 101 to the professor's lab didn't take long. Truthfully it was rather short and merely took about fifteen minutes. Though Maria still believed the trip was pretty long or longer than common short. It was most likely due to the fact she was caught up in her thoughts and didn't dare to listen to prof. Birch ramble on.

When the two reached the lab immediately Maria got light-hearted and marched right into the building. She heard prof. Birch cry out to her to slow down and await for him. But the girl didn't listen to the professor and carelessly walked through the front doors.

Right after pushed through the doors Maria than meet of eyes of him. A boy he was and by the looks of it he was around her age, if not older. He had fiery-red hair and purple eyes. He wore almost all red, though the jacket, shorts and glasses he had on were different colors, black and white to be correct. His backpack was one stripped. In height he seemed to be barely taller than Maria.

The boy's mysterious purple eyes scanned the girl across from him. He saw that her hair was mixture of red and brown. She wore a red ribbon in her hair that showed to a certain extent familiar to him. Her clothes were all bright shades from the small jacket and to the slip-on shoes. But he founded her different colored eyes to be the most intriguing about her.

Whilst he was observing her prof. Birch came running in. The brown haired and breaded man was panting heavily and looked exhausted. Though he quickly got his good aroma of energy back. He turned to two teenagers and broke the tension between them.

"Darrick this is Maria. Remember the one I told you about?" Prof. Birch grinned his big smile.

"Yes, I remember. Very clearly exactly." His tone of voice was smooth and soothingly. His purple eyes didn't move once from the newly made trainer.

Maria said no reply but merely gave a groan and rolled her eyes. Prof. Birch caught sight of this and nudged her on the elbow for her ill-mannered behavior. He harshly whispered be nice to her. Maria groaned once more and Darrick laughed at her rude manners. Which Maria stiffened by the sound of the boys laughter.

"So, you're Mariann Maple? Daughter of thee May Maple?" The Darrick asked in curiosity.

"It's Maria! And yes I am the daughter of May Maple." Maria grunted.

"My, my quite the name you have to live up too!" Maria puffed up her cheeks at his sentence. Darrick smirked in amusement. "Are you aware that eighteen years ago are mother and father were sheer enemies?"

Maria shook her head. "No, I was unaware of that. Well, until now." She paused. "It seems you know lots about me, Darrick. But enough of me. I want to hear more about you. Who you are, exactly?"

The redhead chuckled in delight and Maria was taken aback. "I could tell you who I am… but that's a story for another day." He said with a sneer and left Maria to herself and walked on over to prof. Birch.

The red-brown recalled back to the boys words from earlier. "Are you aware that eighteen years ago are mother and father were sheer enemies?" The very rang in her head. She wandered whose Darrick father even was. She remembered her mother's stories of her journey and that one time she said she saved the world from some man's foolish plan of making it anew, but in the end the man realized he did wrong and decided to get a fresh start alongside his organization. "Is that man Darrick's father?" Maria thought however she dismissed the belief and went to prof. Birch's side.

"So, Maria I heard that from your mother you don't have a pokemon yet. Though it still seems you need some practice, but what better practice than going on a journey! You have a lot of your mother in you! As for coming to my reuse, I'd like you to have that pokemon you used earlier." Prof. Birch grinned.

"I-I… Thank you professor." Maria flushed in embarrassment and her face became red. She bowed in gratitude and clasped she face in her hands.

"While you're at it, why not give a nickname to that mudkip?"

"No, I think I'll leave it as it is." Maria grew even redder.

Darrick chuckled at the red-brown haired trainer's awkward scene. "Though it still seems you need some practice!" He repeated prof. Birch's words. "Why don't I help practice?"

"Are you challenging me to a pokemon battle? If so than you are going down!" Fire burned in Marias blue and brown eyes.

"Oh, don't get all too cocky now, Mariann. I am a beginner myself, but I certainly have some years of experience."

The two stared at each other with such tautness. Maria was all reinforced and Darrick simply had a sly smirk on his face. Maria was almost about to throw out her mudkip to battle, however she were stopped by prof. Birch.

"Please, you two don't battle in the middle of the lab. Go outside!" The man demanded.

The two teenagers grumbled in disagreement but listened to the professor and walked outside the lab and out to an open field of green grass. They both took their positions and began the battle. Maria sent out her starter, mudkip. Darrick released his treecko from its pokeball.

"You know Maria your pokemon, mudkip does have a disadvantage against my treecko." The redhead taunted his opponent. "However I'm quite curious how strong you and your pokemon is… Therefore I'm allowing you to make the first move." His purple eyes flicked with interest.

"Stop stating the oblivious and let's start this battle." Maria growled. "Mudkip use tackle." The mud fish pokemon didn't listen yet again. Rather it laid down in the soft green grass and yawned. Maria shouted out a few more commands still mudkip wouldn't obey its trainer.

Darrick began to grow impatient. "Well, if mudkip won't attack than we will! Treeko use pound!" He ordered and unlike Maria and mudkip treecko obeyed Darricks order. The wood gecko pokemon came charging towards its foe with incredible speed.

"Mudkip dodge it!" Maria cringed with worry. The blue colored pokemon become stunned by how fast the charging treecko and it was barely able to dodge its pound. Maria told mudkip to use tail whip and the pokemon obediently did the move. So, treeckos defense was lowered.

Darrick told his pokemon to use bullet seed and it directly hit mudkip. Merely by one attack mudkip seemed to be worn out but that didn't stop it from battling. Maria ordered mudkip to use tackle again though treeko dodged the strike all on its own. Maria and her pokemon were stunned by this. With barely often time to recover treeko pounded mudkip.

The mud fish pokemon crashed hard onto the grassy green ground. "Mudkip!" Maria cried out to her pokemon in concern but there came no reply from mudkip. "Mudkip…" She whispered and still there came no reaction out of the pokemon.

Maria didn't know what had happened to her pokemon until Darrick blunt out said it. "Looks like your mudkip has fainted. That means I win." Darrick returned his treecko into its pokeball. "I must say I thought you would be stronger, but I guess I was wrong."

The red-brown haired girl ran towards her mudkip and wrapped her arms around the small pokemon. Her face was completely in shock and she dared not to look Darrick in the eye. Though in the inside she wanted to punch the boy in the face.

"You're quite the pathetic trainer, Maria." Darrick frowned. "However… you do seem to have some potential to become a true pokemon trainer. By having so much confidence and all as your best trait. But it's also your worst." He sounded disappointed.

"I'm pretty sure we'll meet again one day. Until that day you'll most undoubtedly be much stronger, you and your pokemon. But for now I must say farewell." The redhead turned on his heel and began to leave.

"No, wait!" Maria cried in frustration. "This battle's not over with!"

Darrick glanced over his shoulder and looked to the girl in a curious matter. "Oh, really. Might I recall that you only have one pokémon? And that pokémon is right there in your arms, fainted. Are you blind or just plainly stupid?"

"I am not stupid!"

"I'd love to stick around and continue our disappointingly short battle from earlier. Nonetheless treecko and I have badges to win." Darrick turned away and continued down his path.

Maria cried. "Wait, wait I said!" She was enraged. She grabbed the pokeball she got from her mother and released the pokemon from its ball.

"Nu, numel…" A numel was freed from the pokeball. The pokemon stood there looking all dull witted and bored. Maria sighed in dissatisfaction. "Mom had to get me a numel. Why not a poochyena or a zigzagoon? But a numel! What was she thinking?" She quivered but at least it had a type advantage against Darrick's treecko.

Though surprisingly to Maria when Darrick to see the pokemon. He implied to be reasonably fascinated by it. He stared at the creature with his wide purple eyes. "Is that a numel… and it's shiny!" He was speechless.

It was true, the numel did have a different color pattern than most of its species. Its back was blue rather than green and its color of fur was a brown-tannish shade instead of yellow. Maria secretly gave a devilish smirk. "You seem quite impressed. Why's that?"

"For one it's shiny. But if that was my only reason than that'll be purely cliché of me."

"What's the other reason than?"

"To cut a long story short, my father has a camerupt of his own. Camrupt has always been one of my favorites." Darrick walked up to the numel and patted it on the head. Numel was rejoiced by the boys petting.

Maria blinked a few before she said something. "Swampert has always been one of my favorite pokemon."

"Is that why you chose mudkip over treecko or torchic?"

"Well…" The girl scratched the back of her neck. She remembered her battle with the wild poochyena and immediately blushed by the bare thought of that occasion. She muttered a quiet no and shook her head side to side in defiance. "It was more of a… chance of fate…"

"Oh, I see…" A soft smile curled on Darricks lips. He rose himself up to his feet. "But enough with the talk. I can tell that you're pretty eager for a rematch. So, I challenge you to a battle once more. Do you accept my offer?"

Maria chuckled. "You're on!"

"Although this time I won't be using treecko. Instead…" Darrick grabbed a pokeball from his belt. "Go, poochyena!" A poochyena come out of the ball.

"Argh! Not, another poochyena…" Maria shuddered in disgust. She brushed off the feeling and returned her mudkip to its pokeball. She gave numel an order to attack. "Numel, use ember!"

"Poochyena dodge it!" Darrick told his pokemon.

The pokemon battle went on for quite a while. Maria's numel listened to her without any trouble, unlike mudkip. The numb pokemon had a strong attack base stat for its level, but it was weak in speed and defense. When poochyena attacked Maria had to have numel to take the hit every now and then. The fight was much more intense than before. However in the end Maria and numel were victorious.

She returned numel to its pokeball and cheered in glee by her victory. Darrick was little shock to be beaten but he accepted his defeat and smirked.

"Well, you were able to defeat me. But that was only by minor luck." His smirk deepened. "Next time I'm sure I'll win." He returned his fainted poochyena and waved goodbye.

"…what a jerk…" Maria muttered with a frown. She sighed in weariness and collapsed to her knees. She gazed up to see the big bright blue sky. She saw the clouds drift peacefully and bird pokemon soar through the heavens without a care in the world. The girl wandered of the many adventures and events that awaited for her. She dreamt of herself obtaining all the eight gym badges, competing in contests and defeating the elite four and in the end will have an intense battle against her mother. Oh, she was such a dreamer. She speedily got back up on her feet and began to head out.

"Hey, Mariann wait!" Someone shouted out her name.

"For the last time its Maria-" Maria turned on her heel and hissed in anger but she stopped herself when she saw prof. Birch running towards her. "Professor…"

"I-I forgot… I forgot to give you… Excuse give me just a minute…" The man panted heavily though alike usual he recovered shorty after. "I forgot to give you a pokedex and some pokeballs."

"Wait, what a pokedex! But I thought mom already completed it for you? I don't understand…" Maria said in confusion.

"That's true however after the whole groudon crisis pokemon from different regions have been coming to Hoenn. I need someone to do research for me because… Well, you seen me do fieldwork." Prof. Birch laughed. "Plus it'll be quite useful for you while on your journey."

The red-brown haired girl smiled. "Thank you, prof. Birch. This will most certainly be helpful. I can't put it into words have grateful I am right now."

"Yes, do catch a lot awhile on your travels! And good luck, Maria." The brown haired and breaded man patted her on the head and waved goodbye.

Maria gave a quick wave back and ran off to route 101. "Next stop Petalburg City!"

A/N: Well, in this chapter we got to be introduced to Darrick, Maria's main rival. The boy does play an important role within the story. So, he'll appear every now and then. As you can tell by now Maria isn't the greatest battle around, unlike her mother and grandfather. But this apart of her develop and she'll surely get better over time.

If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask.