Peering down from the balcony of the Pokémon Centre, I saw Forrest anxiously pacing up and down.
"Alright. You ready?" I asked Exton. Exton nodded.
"As I'll ever be." He said. I patted him on the back, and both of us stepped onto the escalator to go down to the bottom floor. Matthias was currently in a call with his folks, and couldn't get away. After the death of Exton's Pidgey, we were called by Forrest to meet him on the bottom floor of the Pokémon without further explanation. Exton didn't want to go, but I convinced him to, because I didn't want to get on the Leader's bad side, as well as a hope to resolve any anger towards each other.
"Well, hello again, Challenger Alvin and Challenger Exton." Forrest said as he saw us descend from the upper floor. "Where's your other friend?"
"He's currently occupied about something." I waved my hand dismissively. "Anyways, why did you ask us to come here?"
"Well, I wanted to apologise." Forrest said as he rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't mean to hit your Pidgey so hard, or kill it. I'm really sorry for that. I hope you'll forgive me." He said as he bowed.
Exton sweatdropped. "No problem..." He trailed off.
"Anyways, because of the...'incident', I didn't get to give you all your badges, TMs, and prize money. So here you are." Forrest handed us three cases, all packed with $2,000, the Bide Technical Machine and the Boulder Badge, a pin that signified that we had triumphed over the Pewter Gym.
"Thank you." I said graciously, stuffing the three into my backpack.
"And for you, Challenger Exton, I have something to give to you." Forrest said, and took out a Pokéball from his pocket. "This Pokémon was bred by my mother, but no one seems to want it. I know you need to have another Flying-Type, so here you go."
Exton received the Pokéball with both hands, clipping it onto his belt. "Thank you, Forrest."
"Anytime. Now, I must attend to other matters." Forrest said, before turning around and leaving the Pokémon Centre. He pulled out a phone, speaking into it silently.
"Have you given him the Pokémon?" a voice whispered from the other end.
"It is done." Forrest replied, before hanging up.
I turned to Exton. "Well, let it out, let's see what it is!" I encouraged him. Exton threw the Pokéball up into the air, letting out what seemed like a small white cloud, connected to a rotund small light blue body.
"SWABLU!" The bird cried out. "Hey, it's a Swablu!" I excitedly said. "Scan it, quick!" Exton said.
"It says here that she's female, nicknamed Melody- Hey, I just remembered I need to nickname my Pokémon- anyways, she's Level 15, with a Calm nature, and has the moves Sing, Peck, Astonish, and Disarming Voice." I said, listing of what my Xtransciever read. Exton nodded every time I spoke a word, and when I finished, sat down on the bench.
"What's wrong?" I asked, sitting down beside him.
"I-I just feel like I'm replacing Pidgey..." Exton stammered out. I stared at him, not really knowing what to say in this situation.
"You're not." I said firmly.
"How would you know?" He said bitterly in my direction.
"You're not that kind of person. I've known you for years now. I know that you wouldn't do that." I said, a bit of steel leaking into my voice.
"How do you know for sure? I could be that kind of person." Exton countered.
"Well, I guess that you'll just have to believe that you're not." I said, before offering my hand to him. "Let's go get Matthias, and leave quickly." Exton sniffled a bit, before taking my hand, and letting me pull him up. Both of us then walked to the Communicator room.
When we got onto Route 3, I turned to my two friends.
"Now that we've gotten our gym battle, let's have a Battle Royale!" I proposed.
"That actually sounds like fun, compared to the sort of things you usually come up with." Exton snarked back, before standing up.
"Yeah! Let's do this!" Matthias said, before jumping up.
We all moved back a bit, to create a circular arena for our battle.
"GO!" We all shouted at the same time, and threw our Pokéballs forward. Exton let out his new Swablu, Matthias his Dartrix, and I my Litten. They all faced each other, growling to try to create fear.
"Melody, Astonish on Dartrix!" Exton yelled, his Swablu flying forward, cloaked in a weak ghostly aura, towards Dartrix.
"Dartrix, dodge and Leaf Storm!" Matthias yelled. His Dartrix leapt forward, in the process summoning a tornado of leaves that moved slowly outwards, surely to hit both of us. His Dartrix stayed in the eye of the storm, the ferocious winds at his disposal whirling around him. I had an idea on how to avoid the tornado.
"Litten, use Flame Shield, but in a ball around you!" I yelled, the most of my voice getting drowned out by the wind. However, Litten's sensitive hearing heard me, and her ears perked up, before yowling and creating a ball of fire around her. The winds hit Swablu first, pummelling her body with sharp leaves, leaving cuts on her. However, when the leaves reached Litten, they simply burned up, and she was safe, for now.
"Now Crunch!" I shouted. Dartrix, dropping to the floor and panting, exhausted from the attempt, was too tired to move, and Litten nailed him easily with a Crunch, fainting him. Suddenly, Litten's body started to glow and morph.
"Another evolution?" I gasped, blinking my eyes from the extreme light. When the bright light died down, Litten had turned into a larger form of herself, with a bell on her neck, and yowled loudly, releasing a flare of fire.
"Finally, a Torracat!" I cheered, Torracat meowing cheerfully. I scanned her again, and it looked like she learned a new move, Double Kick.
"Melody, up again!" Exton commanded. Swablu got off the ground and flew into the air.
"Torracat, Fire Tide!" I yelled. Torracat summoned two waves of flames, radiating around it.
"Sing!" Exton commanded. Melody opened her mouth, and waves of light echoed every time she sang a note. Torracat's eyes slowly drooped, and she fell over, clearly asleep.
"Oh no! Torracat, you've gotta get up!" I shouted, concerned. Torracat's legs kicked out a bit, but other than that showed no sign that she had heard me.
"Peck until she wakes up!" Exton commanded. Melody flew down and started pummelling Torracat's body with pecks. After a while, Torracat stirred, and woke up, barely standing. Melody then flew back up.
"Fire Jet on Melody!" I yelled, worried. Torracat summoned two small flame jets underneath Melody, but she easily dodged.
"Disarming Voice!" Exton commanded. Melody then opened her mouth away, and instead of white waves, pink waves of light pulsed out, hitting Torracat and fainting her. I sighed, and returned her, a jolt of cold doubt jolting through my body, starting a cold flame at the back of my mind. I forced a smile on my face, with gritted teeth.
"Well, guess I won." Exton said happily, wit his and outstretched. "Pay up, y'all."
Both Matthias and I grumbled and scrambled for some money, handing it to Exton.
"Thank you!" He chirped.
"I think we should stop for a rest." I said, and both of them nodded.
As we unpacked, I commented. "You know, we haven't nicknamed our Pokémon yet."
"You're right, for once." Exton said.
"Shut up." Matthias grumbled, still sore for losing his second battle. "I'm nicknaming my Rowlet Pharah, and my Eevee..."
"I think we should wait until they evolve." I commented.
"Perhaps, but maybe they should choose their evolutions first." Matthias countered.
"Fine." I said. I sat down and pulled up the Pokédex entries for all of the Eeveelutions. While I was doing that, Matthias sent out his Eevee as well as mine. They both cuddled up to me, and I pulled up the images of them.
"Now, can you two choose which one you like most?" I said to the two. Matthias' Eevee clicked the quickest, clicking on the spiky electric rabbit, Jolteon, and my Eevee clicked second, on the smooth mermaid cat, Vaporeon.
"Right, so I'm naming you Hydro, and Torracat Inferna." I said, typing my options into the information page on my Xtransciever for my Pokémon.
"I'm naming her Volta." Matthias said, and I typed her new name in.
The break soon ended, and we headed to the Mount Moon Pokémon Centre.
