Episode 4: The prideful penguin

After Brittany's loss in the Jubilife City Pokémon Contest, the three continued to their next destination—Oreburgh City, where Niko would compete in his first Sinnoh League gym battle. According to the map JJ was given, with some help from a map app on his new Pokétch, the journey would take only a couple of days.

The dividing path between the two cities was route 203, which was unique to the group in that its environment wasn't as heavily forested. Throughout much of their journey on land in the Johto and Hoenn regions, they found themselves walking along paths through forests and mountains. Route 203, on the other hand, consisted more of plains and rolling hills than dense forests. It allowed the three trainers to observe the world around them without having to search through trees and bushes to find it.

During lunch on their first day back on the road, Niko spent some time with turtwig and shinx. It was his first opportunity since catching shinx to train them for his upcoming gym battle.

At first, shinx didn't seem to take a liking to turtwig, even stealing some of turtwig's berries from it. The tiny leaf pokémon scowled at shinx, but hardly made a move, suggesting to Niko its aversion to conflict. Shinx hardly felt ashamed either, which prompted Niko to scold it and later lecture it on the morality of stealing. Shinx hardly seemed fazed, but went along all the same.

After eating, Niko brought the two to the bottom of a small hill to work on battling while JJ groomed his pokémon and Brittany pondered her loss in Jubilife.

"Alright you two, we've got a gym battle coming up, and both of you will likely be competing in it. JJ, do you know what type of pokémon Roark uses?" JJ looked down at Niko from his spot near the top of the hill and shook his head. "Great…anyways! The way I usually train is by doing a couple of things. I like to prioritize speed in battling. Both of you seem to be fast, especially you, shinx. So how about we go on a little run, just the three of us?"

Turtwig nodded shyly while shinx gave Niko a cold stare. It was clear that the flash pokémon hardly liked him, and felt like it was being forced into this situation. Sighing, Niko turned and began to jog through the plains, with both pokémon managing to keep up for the first few minutes. Eventually, turtwig began to tire out and fall back. Shinx looked behind and sniggered a little, which agitated the tiny leaf and forced it to run faster, eventually tackling shinx and rolling through the grass with it.

"Oh, you're kidding me…" Niko said once he noticed the two fighting. "Hey! Hey! You two are teammates! Act like it," Turtwig and shinx managed to separate themselves from one another, scowling at one another. Niko sighed again. "Come on, this is important."

They continued jogging for a bit, with turtwig and shinx each running on one side of their trainer, resisting the urge to peer over at the other and start another fight. Once the three made it back to the hill, they were all exhausted, even shinx, who at one point coaxed turtwig into a race and won, but tired itself out in the process.

"So…how was that?" Brittany asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Could have been better. Not sure why there's animosity between these two."

"Whatever it is, you'll surely figure it out," JJ said, looking up from growlithe, who was happily being groomed. Niko smiled and nodded before sitting down to rest before they continued walking down route 203.

After several more hours of walking, the group rested once more on the edge of a pond that traveled east-west. Niko attempted to train turtwig and shinx, but the two seemed to lose interest, and Niko hardly bothered, instead focused on thinking of ways to get the two to do something.

Once dinner was finished—complete with shinx once again trying to steal turtwig's food—the group quickly fell to sleep. Sometime during the night, Niko woke up to something frantically moving through the water. Sitting up, he peered over at the river and didn't see anything, electing to fall back to sleep. Moments later, he heard the same noise once again. He reached for shinx's pokéball and summoned the flash pokémon.

"Hey, shinx, can you use charge for me? There's something in that river that keeps making a sound," Niko asked. Oddly enough, shinx obliged and charged up electricity, causing it to glow. Niko stood up and walked with shinx over to the bank of the river. Looking into the water, the head of a penguin suddenly popped out. It looked unconscious, as it was floating along in the river without resistance. "Shinx! We've gotta do something," Niko said, panicking a little. Before he got a chance to hesitate, he leapt into the river after the piplup. The sound he made when he dove into the water seemed to wake up Brittany, who looked around confusedly until she noticed shinx standing there lighting up the area.

"Shinx, what's going—Niko!" She frantically got out of her sleeping bag and ran down the river alongside shinx, who provided light the whole way. Eventually Niko swam to the bank of the river and crawled out, holding a small penguin-like pokémon. "Niko…are you alright?"

"Yeah, a little cold, but shinx and I found this thing floating in the river. Not sure how it got there, but it made enough noise to wake me up, so something must have happened only minutes ago."

"Here, let's take it back to our camp and get you dried off," Brittany said, leading Niko, shinx, and the penguin over to a camp. By now JJ was awake, albeit barely. Once he saw Niko soaked and holding an unfamiliar pokémon, his eyes widened with surprise and curiosity. Niko lay the penguin down on a blanket while he explained everything to JJ. Meanwhile, the curly blonde trainer summoned growlithe to light a fire to warm Niko up.

After a while, Niko turned to the penguin, who was still asleep. It was then that he noticed it had some bruises and scars.

"Can we heal it?" Niko asked, lightly touching one of its flipper-like arms.

"First off, what is it?" JJ asked. Niko shrugged and pulled out his pokédex:

"Piplup, the penguin pokémon. Water type. A poor walker, it often falls down. However, its strong pride makes it puff up its chest without a care."

"Piplup…why is a penguin pokémon around here, in a plains environment?" JJ asked curiously.

"No idea," Niko thought for a moment before continuing. "I would bet that maybe this pokémon got into some sort of fight, but refused to give up, since it's a prideful species?"

"That's certainly a possibility. But either way, we need to heal it up," Brittany said, reaching into her bag for some bandages and other first-aid supplies. As she was about to tend to the pokémon, piplup woke up and looked around at everyone.

"Pip! Piplup!" It shouted angrily at Niko, Brittany, and JJ before slapping Brittany's hand away and trying to run off.

"Wait, piplup!" Niko shouted. The penguin pokémon turned around and stared at it. "We're just trying to help. I found you in that river and you looked hurt. Before you leave, let us help you," Piplup stared at Niko, then turned to Brittany, and obliged after hesitating for a moment.

It didn't take long for Brittany to fix piplup up, at which time it promptly left the group. Before going, though, it looked at Niko and nodded, as if acknowledging his role in the penguin's rescue. Before long, everyone was back in bed. Niko was dry, shinx was sound asleep, and all seemed right in the world again.

The following day went largely the same way, with Niko spending some of his morning and afternoon trying to train turtwig and shinx, and only getting marginally better results. They had managed to get through most of their daily jog without one provoking the other. By mid-afternoon, they were working on their moves, with turtwig practicing its absorb on a nearby bush, and shinx working on its "burst speed," as Niko called it, which are essentially short sprints in alternating directions. Niko also learned that shinx knew the move bite, as it used it on turtwig, which irritated the tiny leaf pokémon immensely.

While they were practicing on the edge of a nearby forest to the north, Niko looked beyond the hill they stood on and saw something small and blue running west, away from a group of what looked like birds. Curious, Niko ran down the hill to get a better look and, lo and behold, it was the piplup from earlier, running from a group of black and grey birds of varying shapes and sizes.

"Hey, piplup!" Niko shouted. "Over here!"

The penguin pokémon turned its head to Niko and chose to ignore him, instead running back in the direction Niko and his friends had traveled.

"Shinx! Turtwig, over here!" Niko said, looking behind him to see his two pokémon embroiled in a scuffle. They immediately stopped and looked at Niko, who frowned and motioned them over. "Come on, that piplup needs help."

Brittany and JJ, hearing Niko's shouts, also got up and ran to help out. Together, the three humans and their pokémon advanced on the piplup and its group of pursuers. Niko commanded turtwig to use absorb on the closest bird it found, and shinx to use charge, which enabled it to run faster using the electricity stored in its body. Brittany summoned pikachu and JJ sent out shroomish, using thundershock and stun spore, respectively. Shroomish managed to stun the birds and bring them to the ground while pikachu shocked them. Niko then ran over to the piplup with turtwig and shinx.

"You alright?" Niko asked, bending down and looking at piplup, who exhibited no new scars or injuries. However, piplup didn't seem happy with their intervention. It looked away, as if ashamed by Niko's help. "Listen, you were in danger, piplup. I wanted to help you. You very well might be a strong pokémon, and I have no doubt of that, but sometimes it's okay to ask for help."

Brittany and JJ were intently listening while keeping an eye on the flock of birds, whom JJ recognized to be pokémon called starly and staravia, according to his pokédex.

Niko tried to touch the piplup, but it shifted away from his hand before looking back and seeing the stern, but caring look Niko gave it. Piplup then turned back to Niko, and nodded.

"Huh?" Niko asked. Piplup moved towards Niko and held out its flipper, as if it was offering a handshake. Niko took it, smiling. "Well, I'm glad to have helped you, piplup."

As Niko got back up to leave, piplup looked at turtwig with leery eyes. Niko looked down at the penguin, and at turtwig, who looked up at Niko and nodded.

"You want to battle it?" Niko asked. Turtwig replied with a nod, and it and piplup took several steps away from each other to simulate a battlefield. "Alright then, turtwig, let's go! Use tackle!" The tiny leaf pokémon rushed forward at piplup, who dodged the move and responded with bubble, which irritated turtwig at best. "Now, absorb!" Turtwig's seedling began to glow a bright green color as it sapped piplup's energy. The penguin cringed as it collapsed onto the ground. Without thinking much of it, Niko pulled out an empty pokéball from his bag and tossed it at the piplup. The penguin pokémon glowed a bright red before entering the ball. It fell onto the ground and wiggled three times before ultimately clicking. Niko walked past turtwig and picked up the pokéball, showing it to the grass type and shinx. The electric type in particular seemed interested in its new teammate, but tried to play it off as mere indifference.

"Now, what do we do about those birds?" JJ asked, pointing back to the flock that was now recovering from the stun spore/thundershock combination.

"I don't know…?" Niko asked with a shrug. "I don't think they'll bother us anymore, though."

JJ nodded, and the three walked back to their camp with a new addition to their team. Niko summoned piplup once they got back and sat down in front of it.

"Listen, I caught you because I think you want to be stronger, is that correct?" Piplup nodded. "I don't know much about you, but I want to get to know you, and together I want to become stronger. Are you with me?"

Piplup nodded, showing no emotion. It didn't seem like the kind of pokémon that wanted to be with a trainer, and the kind of pokémon that stood true to its pokédex entry. He appreciated that, and vowed to himself to work with such a prideful little pokémon.

Author's note: The piplup capture, admittedly, could have been written better, but rest assured, I do want to expand more on piplup's-and shinx's-personalities. Both of them present unique opportunities to practice character development and show growth, both for Niko and for each of them. As for turtwig, it seems that our little turtle friend is just shy and eager to prove itself to Niko and its teammates. Regardless, I hope you've enjoyed them so far.