Let me preface this entry by apologizing to whomever might read my journal. I forgot to establish earlier that I was going to let my team write several entries in this journal. After all, they can provide a lot of different perspectives that I can't. (Namely the fact that they can understand each other without Marie translating for me, which saves paper space and pen ink.) Obviously, that won't stop me from writing several entries in my own journal. That said, however, a few mistakes I've made in writing have given me the idea to play a little game with my journal in which the reader will have to guess the perspective each entry is written from. Hope you have fun with that! ...Anyway, all that said, let me resume the story.
There we were. Marie, my sister, Princess, my starter, and myself, all on Route 203, taking our first leap into our journey. Sure, Route 203 was remarkably short, but I was determined to make this special! ...Unfortunately, I got the feeling Marie and Princess didn't exactly share the same sentiment, walking on opposite sides of me and doing their level best to avoid looking at each other. Sure, they started off on the wrong foot with each other, Princess doing so in a quite literal sense, but... crap, that was the problem. Marie was right, I think these two really were going to be oil and water. Fortunately, I had an idea. Every kid does the oil and water in a bottle experiment in science class, and every kid wants to find some way to mix the two substances that always stay separate. Well, I did that experiment, and I wanted to mix the oil and water, at least. I figured it out, too. All you need to do is shake the bottle, and the oil and water will mix, at least for a little while, until they settle and separate again. That was all I had to do. I just had to give these two a shake, and maybe they could start working together. Even if it would only last for a bit...
Now, all I had to do was find some way to give them that shake. The easy solution was probably to get these two in a battle together. That would just take finding a pair of wild Pokemon for them to take on. How hard could that be on a route full of tall grass next to a tunnel, however short this route may have been?
Sure enough, I found my query. A Bidoof and a Starly together at the small lake near the entrance to Oreburgh Gate. They looked like a pair, of sorts. Perfect for a Double Battle.
"Marie, Princess," I called down as I stopped walking. Both the Zorua to my left and the Piplup to my right stopped and looked up at me. "I've decided, I want to use both of you in my first battle as a trainer. Our foes..." I pointed at the Bidoof and Starly about ten meters away. "...will be those two over there. What do you say? Think you can take them on together?"
Marie and Princess looked at each other for a moment before turning their noses up and away from one another.
"Zor zor," Marie barked.
"Pip-Piplup," Princess chirped.
I brought my hand to my forehead and massaged it with a groan. I didn't really need to understand them to know they said, "No way," and "I agree," respectively. To be fair, Marie told me at a later date that those were, indeed, their exact words, but I really did have the idea at the time. One thing was clear, though. This was gonna be harder than I thought, and I had my bar set pretty high to begin with.
"Listen you two," I started, unsure of what "inspiring" words were about to come out of my mouth next, "I don't know what Pokemon believe in, if anything, but I, personally, am a firm believer in the principle of fate. The belief that everyone has a destiny that they are to strive to achieve in their lifetime. For me, that destiny is to become the greatest trainer to walk this planet, and to carry six Pokemon - six family members - alongside me in my journey to become the best. You two are the first of those six Pokemon I'll bring with me, and thus you share that destiny for greatness. However, we can only become great if we learn to work together." I paused for a moment, and realized that Marie and Princess had stopped turning their noses away from each other and were paying attention to me again. "I'm grateful for meeting both of you like I have, and I want to consider you both family by the time our journey is over, but that starts with you two getting along with each other as well. I don't expect you two to be inseparable as sisters right off the bat, but please... at least stop turning your noses away from each other the second you make eye contact. If not for yourselves or each other, then at least for me?"
There was a long pause, and I could tell by the looks on both of their faces that my words really were sinking in. I had to remind myself to not count my Pidgey before they hatched, though. "Cautious optimism" was the term I had to remember.
"(Alright, fine,)" Marie whined. "(I'll work with this pompous penguin just for you, Marcus.)"
"(And I can deal with this far-flung fox if what you say about a destiny of greatness is true,)" Princess chirped.
Again, couldn't understand them word-for-word at the time, but I could tell I'd gotten somewhere just now. I hazarded a smile. "Thank you," I said with a nod. "Now then, time for me to say something I've always wanted to say... Marie! Princess! To arms!"
My somewhat nerdy battle cry out of the way, I dashed towards the Bidoof and Starly, Marie and Princess on my heels. I stopped about two meters from my foes and whistled sharply to get their attention. Sure enough, the wild Pokemon turned around. I pointed at them. "You two," I started, "you two shall have the honor of being the first Pokemon defeated in battle by I, Marcus Isaiah Perseus Lyre, soon to be the greatest Pokemon Trainer to ever exist, as well as my Pokemon, Marie Lyre and Princess Lyre! En guarde, Bidoof and Starly! This day, our fates cross!"
In that moment, I mentally asked myself a question. Marie would ask me the exact same question later both for herself and on Princess' behalf. That question: Why the hell was I talking like that? It seemed the heat of battle caused me to adopt a whole new speech pattern. Weird, yes, but I couldn't think about that right now. The battle was about to begin!
I took a deep breath before giving my first commands. "Marie, start by using Leer! Princess, use Growl" I'd been told the Pokemon of Route 203 were rather strong for beginning trainers, so I wanted to be strategic. Fortunately, Princess and Marie were a perfect pair, able to lower the Attack and Defence of both foes at once in the same first turn.
Princess was the first to act, stepping up and leaning forward, unleashing a rather cute but powerful chirping noise that caused visible sound waves that echoed over the Bidoof and Starly, as well as causing ripples in the lake behind them. The foes shut their eyes and covered their ears. Perfect! They'd been disarmed for now! Unfortunately, the fact that their eyes were closed rendered Marie's attempt to use Leer useless, since she couldn't make eye contact with her targets.
"(Princess, what the hell?)" Marie barked. "(I need their eyes open for Leer to work!)"
"(Hey, it's not my fault they closed their eyes!)" Princess snapped back. At this point, they'd turned towards each other. I could almost see a bolt of electricity streaming between their eyes.
"Princess! Marie! Snap out of it!" I called. Under my breath, I added, "Crap, I'm losing them right off the bat. I need to move this battle forward, and fast." It was disadvantageous, since Marie's Leer failed, but I had to move into attacking, now. "Let's switch to offence! Marie, use Scratch on the Starly! Princess, use Pound on Bidoof!"
This time, not wanting to get outshone by Princess again - or so I assumed - Marie leapt forward first and went at the Starly. Her right forepaw started to glow white and she landed a direct hit on the Starly, who got knocked backwards and into the air, but recovered and started flying over the lake. Meanwhile, Princess slid forward on her belly before doing a front flip and bringing her right flipper up, causing it to start glowing white, much the same as Marie's paw from before, before Princess brought her flipper down and brought it down square on the Bidoof's forehead, knocking its head right into the ground.
We were in good shape! Somehow or another, we'd managed to take two turns before our foes even got to move! Unfortunately, we couldn't get three turns in a row, and the Bidoof and Starly recovered and attacked. The Bidoof used Growl on Princess, and her reaction was almost identical to the Wild Pokemons' reactions when she used Growl on them. She shut her eyes and covered her ears. I also wound up catching the tail end of this Growl, and indeed, the sound was somewhat unbearable, but I had to maintain my bearing, for the sake of my Pokemon, and for the sake of my destiny!
Meanwhile, the Starly had a different approach. It used Quick Attack to zip behind Marie and in front of Princess. The Bidoof leapt out of the way just in time for the Starly's Quick Attack to ram Princess square in the chest, catching her off-guard, as she was still reeling from the Growl, knocking her backwards, into Marie, and sending both of them into the drink. Fortunately, the water was shallow where they landed, so they were able to easily get up. Unfortunately, this was the part I was dreading would happen: their snap.
"(What the hell, Princess?)" Marie snapped. "(Do you have any idea how difficult it is to dry myself? Not to mention my fur gets poofy afterwards!)"
"(Well, allow me to apologize for what that Starly did to me!)" Princess angrily chirped back. "(Believe me, if I chose to knock you into the drink, you'd be all the way out there!)" I saw Princess point further out on the lake. That action, combined with how they were shouting at each other, gave me the feeling that they were back to square one... best case scenario.
I managed to tear myself away from the scene of my own Pokemon bickering for a moment to look at the Wild Pokemon they were originally fighting. The two were laughing! This was going horribly. My first battle, and I couldn't succeed because my Pokemon had no synergy, and they were embarrassing themselves in front of their foes as a result. I shouldn't have tried to mix oil and water. Even if the bottle is shaken, they eventually separate again.
"Oil and water..." I found myself saying out loud. "Oil and water...? Oil and water!" I snapped my fingers as a lightbulb went off in my head. I then went back to giving commands. "Princess! Dive into the water and stay under as long as you can until I give you a signal! Marie! Get out of the water, run up to the Bidoof and Starly, and then use your illusion to transform into the Bidoof! My point... get away from each other! Separate like oil and water are supposed to!"
The two stopped arguing and looked up at me to listen to what I was saying. I then saw both smile and nod. Princess let herself fall backwards and into the water, seeming to disappear completely beneath the waves. Meanwhile, Marie leapt out of the water, shook herself off a bit, and ran up to her foes, who still looked like they were laughing. "(Hey losers!)" Marie barked. She then back flipped, and in a flash, she was an almost identical copy of the Bidoof, sans her regular Zorua face and a black fluffy tail above her new Bidoof tail. Sure enough, both the Bidoof and the Starly seemed confused. I was about to move to the next phase of my plan, but Marie seemed to read my mind and executed the move I was going to tell her to do. She leapt at the Bidoof and began wrestling with it, rolling around all over the place and causing the Starly to fly to avoid getting steamrolled. Finally, one of the Bidoof managed to knock the other off of themselves. It was in that moment that I realized I'd lost track of Marie! For a moment, at least. I managed to find her based on the flaws in her illusion after a bit. However, the Starly wasn't quite as sharp. It was good and confused!
"Marie, stand there for a moment and wait for the Starly to take an action," I called. She didn't respond in any way. Perfect.
Both Bidoof stood there, eyeing the Starly expectantly, while the Starly stood there and continuously shifted its gaze between Marie and the real Bidoof, the two of whom had their backs to the lake. It felt like an eternity, though it was just about 20 seconds, before the Starly finally acted. It flew forward and used Tackle on the real Bidoof. A direct hit and a perfect outcome to this phase of my plan. Now it was time to act!
"Marie, it's time!" I called. Time for Phase Three of my plan, that was. "Drop your illusion, then run forward and use Scratch to knock both the Bidoof and the Starly into the air while they're still connected by the latter's Tackle!"
Marie acted with perfect timing. As I was talking, she executed the actions with snap. She returned to her normal form, and executed what she'd later call a "Scratchyuken," whatever the heck that's supposed to be, on the two Wild Pokemon. Sure enough, they both got knocked into the air.
"Now, use Pursuit to chase them down, and hit them over the lake!" I resumed. Marie did just that, coating herself in an odd dark energy and leaping upward at great speed. She then performed a full-body tackle on the two foes, knocking them out over the lake.
Before they started falling towards the drink, I took a deep breath, and gave my coup de grace command. "PRINCESS! LEAP OUT OF THE WATER NOW AND USE POUND TO KNOCK THESE TWO BACK ONTO THE SHORELINE!"
I called that command as loud as I could. I suddenly wasn't sure if Princess would be able to hear me underwater. Fortunately, she did indeed hear me, and she shot out of the water head-first like a graceful rocket. I could almost see the scene in slow motion, with the water droplets flying all around the Piplup, reflecting and refracting the sunlight beautifully. Then, when Princess was at the height of her leap, and perfectly lined up with the approaching Bidoof and Starly, who were tangled into a ball now, the Piplup reached up and readied her flipper to use Pound.
"(How dare you two assume you can be on my level!)" Princess called. "(You two need to be more down-to-Earth!)" What I assumed to be her witty one-liner out of the way, she brought her flipper down powerfully, and the Pound connected, sending the two foes crashing into the ground at the shoreline of the lake. Upon their impact, they slid a bit, digging a small trench before they finally stopped. I didn't have to be right next to them to be able to clearly see the swirls in their eyes.
There was a moment's pause as Princess landed gracefully on her feet, and she, Marie, and myself all looked between each other and the defeated foes. I clenched my fist and looked down, starting to shake a bit.
"Nnnnnn..." I wasn't really saying anything. I was just doing my level best to contain my excitement. An attempt that failed two seconds later. I leapt up into the air and shouted. "YES! MY FIRST VICTORY AS A POKEMON TRAINER!"
I saw Marie smile and start to jump up and down, yipping excitedly with a similar sentiment. Princess just crossed her flippers across her chest and threw her beak up and away from the rest of us. Unlike when she'd do this before, however, she had a smug look on her face. I'd have gotten after her, but I guess her smugness was somewhat warranted. She did land the final blow, after all.
I walked over to the downed Bidoof and Starly and kneeled so I was closer to their level. I then reached into my bag and pulled out two Oran Berries. Two of a dozen my mother insisted I took with me. I presented the two Oran Berries to the defeated Pokemon. "Thank you," I said. They both recovered just enough to look up at me and eye the berries in my hand. "I'm sorry we got a little carried away there at the end, but you two have no idea what you've done for both me and my Pokemon just now. This was our first battle on a journey to greatness, and I wanted to show my gratitude to you in some way. So here, take these Oran Berries."
The Wild Pokemon looked at me curiously before untangling themselves and taking the Oran Berries from my hand, proceeding to eat them with gusto, despite their apparent injuries.
"Bi-doof!" the Bidoof called.
"Star-Star-Starly Star-Starly!" the Starly chirped.
"You're both welcome," I replied with a smile. I assumed they thanked me, at least, because Marie wasn't in earshot at the time. I then stood up and called for Marie and Princess to gather around me. They both leapt towards me and looked up expectantly. "First of all, thank you, both of you. It was you two that got me - got us - this victory."
"(Glad I could be here with you for it, Marcus!)" Marie barked happily.
"(Not that you could have done it without me,)" Princess chirped smugly.
"(Excuse you,)" Marie growled as she turned to Princess. "(Where would you have been if I hadn't set you up like I did?)"
"Both of you, stop," I called, snapping them both back away from each other. "Listen, this battle taught me something very important. Something Marie actually foreshadowed back home. Despite my best efforts, you two really are oil and water. I tried to shake you two up with a battle so that you'd mix, but that nearly resulted in disaster." Both of them stared at me curiously when I mentioned shaking them. I rubbed the back of my head. "Long story. I'll explain later. The point is... you two have very little synergy with each other. If I try to force you two to work together - at least at this point in our journey - you'll just be at each other's throats the whole time. However, I can't rely entirely on my Pokemon to work together. It's the responsibility of the trainer to work with his Pokemon, bring out their strengths and protect their weaknesses. When you two were in the water, I finally realized what I needed to know. Two Pokemon don't have to have perfect synergy to be in sync with their trainer. Oil and water don't have to mix to be able to work together. In fact, just the opposite. Both oil and water are important in a car, for example, but they don't have to mix. They just have to fulfill their roles. Marie, you were able to use your illusion to distract the foes and create an opening, and then Princess was able to make use of that opening by breaching the water and, as a result, gaining the height she needed for her Pound to knock the foes into the ground fast enough for the resulting impact to deal the damage needed to knock them out." I paused to take a deep breath. "The point is, you both have strengths, and thus important roles to play, but you don't necessarily have to play the same role at the same time. You can just-"
Marie suddenly barked, cutting me off. She then back flipped and transformed into her human form. "Marcus, you've made your point," she said with a chuckle. "A few times in that same speech, in fact. Look, we get it. Princess and I know first-paw that we're not gonna get along anytime soon. Honestly, we should be thanking you for figuring that out." She looked down at Princess. "Got anything to add, 'Your Highness'?"
Princess crossed her flippers. "(Just tell Marcus that... my first battle was adequately entertaining, and that some degree of gratitude may be in order,)" Princess chirped. Marie relayed the message to me, but in a somewhat mocking tone.
Both I and my sister had a good laugh, and Princess, of course, protested. And from there, we went on with our journey. A few more battles were had in the Oreburgh Gate, but I made sure to stick with single battles. I'd already had a close enough call with our first battle. Honestly, nothing more that was particularly noteworthy happened for a while after that. Even the battle at Oreburgh Gym wasn't too spectacular. I just had to be smart enough to focus my training on Princess in particular, since she had the type advantage against Rock-types, and then use her alone against Roark. That wasn't really worth writing about.
Of course, one pretty important thing did happen while we were in Oreburgh City...