"Tite?" the small pokemon whimpered scared.
"Are you serious?" I asked no one. The one pokemon I had been trying to avoid was the one I had to accidently catch. I knelt down to the small thing. It didn't look like the other meditite I saw before. This one was much smaller. It must be a baby, I thought.
"Medi?" it whimpered again and began to cry.
"Don't cry," it told it as I picked it up. I patted its back methodically. It calmed down a little bit, and that I was thankful for. I got even more agitated. Not only did I have to get a baby, I had to get a cry baby. The thought of releasing it drifted through my mind, but I pushed deep in the back of my head and locked it away. Darn my moral code. I just couldn't release this helpless baby. I hate to say it, but I think I was already becoming attached. I walked to the Pokemon Center with the thing in my arms and Piper and Aria traveled happily behind. When I got to the center I carefully returned the pokemon and gave it to Nurse Joy for any necessary healing. I also gave her my other two pokemon.
The healing machine chimed, and I was returned my poke balls. I let everyone out including the baby. I checked it with my PokeDex. It was female, which was the only thing I was glad about, and level two. Level two! I shouted in my head. I was totally right about the whole baby thing. The only move it knew was Bide. I just about hated that move with young pokemon. Half of the time they fainted before they could execute the move. The idea of releasing it once again regretfully floated by, but one look into those eyes, and I was sold.
"Well," I said, "If I'm going to train you, you're going to need a name." She seemed to perk up. She must know human speech, I thought. I was eternally thankful for that. I already had to train this thing, and I didn't need a language barrier. I decided to hit the sack for today. It was very late when I caught the meditite. I plopped into my bed and invited my pokemon. My vulpix and azumarill jumped up immediatel, but the meditite was a little more hesitant. I patted the bed. "You can get up here," I told her, "this is where my team and I sleep. You're part of my team now, so you get to sleep here with us." She smiled and awkwardly crawled onto the bed. I smiled. Suddenly the thought of a little girl from my second year of Trainer's School popped into my head. She was the only girl that was ever nice to me that year. Her name was Nikki. "I'll name you Nikki," I told my meditite. She smiled again and crawled onto my stomach. Piper and Aria fell asleep on my sides. Soon sleep took me.
~oOo~
I woke up because of the sound of a small, seemingly young, female voice and the sun, but mostly the sun. "H-hello?" the voice said innocent and pure.
"Yes?" I said as I sat up, not even worried about someone being in my room, but when I looked around I didn't see anyone but my three pokemon, Nikki being the only awake one.
"You can hear me!" the voice yelled loudly. For some reason it gave me a headache.
"Ow!" I said rubbing my forehead.
"Oh, I am sorry," the girl said much quieter.
"Who's there?" I asked confused.
"It's me," the voice said then Nikki started pointing to herself.
"You?" I said pointing to my meditite.
"Yes, I am talking and you can hear me," the voice said. I made a point of staring at Nikki and her mouth never moved.
"I'm going crazy," I told myself, "I'm going crazy or I'm dreaming."
"No, Trainer, you're not crazy or dreaming," the voice said, "I am talking to you."
"How are you talking to me?" I asked annoyed, "I can't understand pokemon, and your mouth isn't even moving. How can I hear you?" I put air quotes around "understand" trying to convince myself I was dreaming and not nuts.
"I am psychic!" the voice cheered happily, and Nikki smiled. Suddenly a glimmer of a memory appeared. A class I took in my last year of Trainer's School. The class was pokemon communications. It was the one class that I hated. It was so boring. All you learned was how to read pokemon body language, but there was one thing that I actually found interesting. It took a while, but I remembered it. Almost all psychic pokemon could communicate with people mentally, and meditite were part psychic types.
"You can talk with your mind?" I asked curiously.
"I don't know. I was just hoping you could hear me. All of the other meditates could do it, but I am young. I didn't know how to do it before. I tried it on other trainers, but they didn't hear me, and I didn't like them. It's easier with you because I like you, Trainer," Nikki explained then smiled.
"You like me?" I asked happily. I don't know why, but I craved all of my pokemon's approval. Even Nikki's.
"Of course I do, Trainer! You caught me. All of the other people wouldn't because I was young," she explained happily. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her capture was an accident.
"Yeah about your age," I said, "how old are you?"
"I think a month," she said blankly.
"A month?" I gasped, "how do you already understand human speech?"
"My mother taught me," she said, "medities learn fast. All psychics are smart."
"When will you be a normal sized meditite?" I asked trying to make it sound as just a question and not a worry.
"Not long, a few weeks maybe, you'll be able to tell that I've gotten bigger every day until I'm almost done growing," she assured me. I did my best to not sigh in relief.
"So are you up for some training?" I asked hopefully.
"Yes! I love training! I am a fighter!" she cheered excitedly.
"Alright," I said, "we have one day to get the gym's badge. Piper and Aria aren't too far behind. We'll train you a little bit, but we don't have time to get you to their level."
"That's fine. When we have the badge I'll catch up fast!" she said happily.
"That's great," I said as I looked over to my other two pokemon, "We should probably wake up the others." I shook Piper and Aria awake. They yawned loudly as we walked straight outside. We didn't have time for breakfast. I checked all of my pokemon's level one more time. Aria was level twenty, Piper was level eighteen, and for some reason Nikki was level three not level two. Communicating with me through thought must have leveled her up, I guessed to myself. I checked my gym leader handbook and read that the Eterna City gym leader's name was Gardenia, and her highest level pokemon was twenty-two. I figured I should get Piper and Aria to level twenty-three first then get Nikki to the highest level I could get her.
"Alright, Aria," I said, "you're up first." Aria happily took out every pokemon she saw. It soon got to the point that the only pokemon that crossed us were the occasional machop with a pride problem and the more common simple bidoof. It wasn't as fast as I had hoped, but it wasn't a horribly long time. I told Aria to stand down, and Piper took the reins. The pokemon weren't as wary of Piper because she was a cute water pokemon, but they soon learned she was better left avoided. Piper took much longer than Aria, but eventually she was level twenty-three. Now I turned to Nikki. She was practically bouncing with excitement from watching her teammates battle. She was a fighter, and she wanted to fight. "Alright, Nikki, it's your turn." I said.
She jumped up. "Tite!" she cheered, and at the same time I heard, "Yay!"
"Alright you saw how Aria and Piper battled. You know what to do. Just follow my orders," I told her. I didn't know how much help she would need, so I figured we would just need to gauge her skills with a battle. Thankfully, a weak looking bidoof lumbered past, but when it saw Nikki it stiffened. It knew it couldn't take on Piper or Aria, but it could tell this pokemon was weak. It knew it could win. It scratched its foot on the ground and charged at Nikki with Tackle. She yelped in surprise as the both went sprawling. The bidoof was on top of Nikki, and she didn't like that.
"Tite!" she screamed and started beating the bidoof on the head. It probably wasn't a real move she knew, but it worked. She hit it about three or four times before the bidoof squealed and try to run away. Nikki wasn't having that. She ran up to it, she was really fast, and kicked the bidoof in the side as hard as she could. It huffed painfully and fell. She smacked it right across the face and walked over to me. It was just now that I realized she had really long legs. "Did I do good?" she asked hopefully.
"You did great," I told her. She clapped happily. I checked her with my PokeDex and she was level four now so the bidoof wasn't as weak as I had thought. Now she couild use the move Meditate. "Can you use Meditate?" I asked her.
"I think so," she said.
"Use it," I told her. The move raised attack so even though she technically know any physical move, I figured it would power up her slaps and kicks. Nikki nodded and sat down. She took a meditation pose and concentrated. She seemed to glow a bit, but it may have just been the afternoon sun.
"Yup, I used it. Can I fight more now?" she asked.
"Go ahead," I told her with a laugh. I mostly left Nikki to her own good judgment because I didn't really know what commands to give her. She slapped, kicked, and punched her way through all the wild bidoof around without any helpfrom Aria or Piper. Before I knew it, she was level eight and happily throwing pokemon around until they reached unconsciousness with Confusion. It wasn't too long before she was level eleven and dodging any pokemon fast enough to challenge her with Detect. She was having the most fun she had probably ever had in her short life. She was born to fight. I knew that when I had first caught her, I was a little skeptical, but now I realize that she was probably the best pokemon I could have caught. I stopped considering her capture an accident and considered it more like fate. She grew all the way to level fourteen until I deemed it time to challenge the gym.
I made a quick trip to the Pokemon Center so I could heal any damage my pokemon might have sustained. I released them, and they all had a renewed vigor. Piper was twirling around, Aria was stretching her muscles, and Nikki was walking on her hands. I had always wanted to learn how to do that, so I was a little jealous. I decided to take a trip to the PokeMart and buy a good supply of potions. I was happy about my amount of money. It wasn't like I was rich or anything, but with the money I already had and the money I got from beating Roark, I was set until probably the next town. I told myself I needed to quit stalling, and I walked, albeit slowly, straight to the Eterna City gym. I opened the doors and walked into the lobby. I made sure all of my pokemon were listening before I started telling them my battle plan.
"Alright," I said, "here's how this is going to go. I might have to use all of you. Aria you're a fire type so I'll obviously use you. Piper you know Ice Beam so I'll use you if Aria is worn out. Nikki you are a psychic type, so if Gardenia has a part poison type I'll use you If both Aria and Piper are stretched too thin. You're fast so you should be able to get a few Confusions in. In short, just do your best and follow my orders. I don't want to lose," I explained. They all excitedly nodded in agreement, and I figured we were as good as we'll ever be. I opened the door that led into the battle arena and marched on. Gardenia was petting a budew when she looked up and saw me.
"Hello," she said in a happy voice, "are you here to challenge me?"
"I am," I told her professionally.
"Then let's get this show on the road. You do know the rules right?" she asked.
"Yes I do. I've already beaten Roark," I told her. I didn't really need to tell that I already beat Roark, but I didn't think a little bragging was that bad.
"Well just so you now, I'm a lot tougher than Roark," she said as she took her place on the battle field. I walked to my box and called Aria forward.
"Let's go," I told her. She giggled and released her first pokemon. It was a turtwig, the Sinnoh region grass starter. I knew that they had high defense, but Aria was strong. "Use Confuse Ray," I told her. Aria had learned a lot of new moves since we've been in Eterna. Her eyes glowed deathly similar to the duskull's that we fought so long ago. The turtwig stared deeply into them and started bouncing clumsily around.
"Light Screen!" Gardenia commanded, but the turtwig just plopped on its side and got back up.
"Fire Spin!" I commanded. Aria engulfed the turtwig in a vortex. The attack itself wasn't that strong, but its long lasting effect was useful. The confused pokemon continued to bumble around, but this time with a tornado of fire around it.
"Light Screen!" Gardenia yelled calmly. The pokemon must have heard her through the veil of confusion because a dim yellow barrier appeared and disappeared around the turtwig.
"Ember!" I commanded. Aria spat a mouthful of flames at the turtwig. The yellow barrier appeared again, and it absorbed some of the damage, but the vortex seemed to strengthen.
"Razor Leaf!" Gardenia called out. The confusion had now completely worn off, and the turtwig sent forth a Razor Leaf. Though the attack was strong the leaves came out burning and fell to the ground, burnt and black, before they could make contact with Aria. It took a few more Embers, but the turtwig soon fainted to Aria's fire type strength. Gardenia happily returned it and sent out her second pokemon, a cherrim. It was in a dark purple pod. "Use Sunny Day," Gardenia said. That seemed like a stupid idea because Aria's attacks would just get powered up even if she wanted her cherrim to switch forms. The cherrim happily peeled back its pod to reveal a sunny face that looked like one big flower.
"Ember," I said confused. Aria spat fire at the cherrim, and the attack made a direct hit. The cherrim whined and started limping around. "Uh? Use Ember again?" I said. Aria sent another Ember at the cherrim, and this time it fainted. Gardenia didn't even try.
"Here's my last guy," she said as she returned her second pokemon. "Go," she said as she released her last pokemon in a flash of red light. I could tell that her last pokemon was much stronger than the first two just by looking at it. The roserade looked very regal with its green cape and petal covered hands held up around its face.
"Alrighty then, use Toxic!" Gardenia yelled mischievously. The roserade sent purple sludge from its petals toward Aria. Aria tried to dodge it, but some of the sludge made contact with her tail. I knew she was poisoned, but it was a little spot. She could make it through a little longer.
"Ember!" I yelled to Aria. She sent an Ember at the roserade, and the attack narrowly hit the roserade.
"Magical Leaf," Gardenia said. The roserade fired a group of mysteriously glowing leaves from its petals. Though Aria had easily dodged the attack, the leaves swung around and hit Aria from behind, knocking her down. She got back up, but slowly. I knew she couldn't keep this up, and I didn't want her to faint during a gym battle for the second time, especially now that she had the type advantage. I glumly returned her so I could send out Piper to finish this job up with Ice Beam. Piper happily came out of her ball with a squeak.
"Use Ice Beam!" I yelled quickly. Gardenia was surprise that that attack was called, and she didn't have time to tell her pokemon to dodge before the Ice Beam made a direct hit on the roserade. Nothing froze, but the attack did a great deal of damage on the grass pokemon. The roserade slowly got back up and looked pained and aggravated.
"Use Magical Leaf," Gardenia said. The strangely glowing leaves appeared again, but this time I was ready.
"Ice Beam first, then use Rollout to get out of the way!" I shouted. Piper froze the mysterious leaves in mid-air, but as I expected the leaves continued towards Piper, but now with a slight and gradual incline. I was thankful that during our journey to Eterna, I had time to teach a secret battle code similar to Aria's. In this situation "get out of the way" means to dodge the attack and swing back around to hit the opposing pokemon. Piper happily rolled into a tight ball and rolled quickly toward the roserade. I again caught Gardenia off guard, and the attack landed a direct hit. I was annoyed that the roserade didn't stay down, but it did look even more pained.
"Magical Leaf," Gardenia said hoping she could find a way through my attack.
"Charge through the attack!" I commanded nervously. Piper rolled even faster toward the roserade. The leaves brushed past without slowing her down, but I was pretty sure Piper sustained some damage. Just before the Rollout hit the roserade, it raised its petals.
"Use Toxic," Gardenia said happily. The purple sludge made direct contact with Piper and I knew her poison was much worse than Aria's.
"Ice Beam!" I yelled hoping for one last stand. The roserade raised one of its bouquets to guard it face, and the attack completely froze the red bouquet of petals. The roserade dropped its hand to the ground and groaned. I quickly returned Piper and nervously sent out Nikki. She was just about my last option. I figured it would just take one Confusion to take out the roserade because they were part poison, and it was already really weak. Nikki happily came out of her ball with a cheer. I realized now that Piper and Nikki were a lot alike.
"Use Magical Leaf," Gardenia said sadly obviously feeling sad that she had to put her pokemon through this. This time the pokemon raise one bouquet instead of two, and weakly released a flurry of glowing leaves. They came after Nikki, and I had a moment of panic, but then I remembered Nikki was more than she got credit for.
"Use Detect," I said trying to remain calm. Nikki's eyes began to glow and she swiftly jumped out of the way of the leaves with the one exception to Magical Leaf. They continued to chase after her but she dodged every time. They soon began to slow down. "Jump behind the roserade," I said. I wanted to make this work before the effect of Detect worn off, and I was annoyed that I didn't have time to teach Nikki any battle code. Gardenia knew what was coming. Nikki jumped behind the roserade, but the leaves still followed. They hit the roserade instead of Nikki, and the pokemon looked just about to faint. "Now, use Confusion!" I yelled. Nikki placed her hands on the roserade's back, and her eyes had a renewed glow.
The roserade flew forward with a dim glow around it all the way in front of my feet. It fell and didn't get back up. Nikki cheered and Gardenia returned her roserade with a smile. Though she had lost, she was happy that today's trainers hadn't lost their stuff. I returned Nikki, and Gardenia waved me over. "Good job kid," she said handing me my TM, badge, and prize money. I waved her goodbye and left the building. I quickly hurried to the Pokemon Center so I could heal Aria and Piper. Nurse Joy gladly accepted my pokemon and placed their poke balls on the healing machine. Nikki stood by my leg. Nurse Joy gave me back the two poke balls and handed me a small pink pill. She told me I would need to give Piper it because she had a really bad case of poison. I thanked her and went to my room. I gave Piper her pill and we all fell asleep early awaiting a tomorrow that would bring the beginning of ower first real tournament.