I sit cross legged on a bed, pokeball in hand, staring hard at it. I couldn't figure out a name for the little guy yet, and I couldn't let my poor cyndaquil out until I did so. This is just principle.
After the battle with Sally, a disgraceful defeat I might add, I tactfully retreated and made my way to the pokemon center, Ronnie in tow. There I had given the nurse cyndaquil, after flashing my newly acquired trainer card. I was informed he is male.
When Laura and Elaina had caught up with us, we each requested rooms, but due to the high occupancy we had to share rooms. I was to bunk with Ronnie, and Elaina and Laura where to bunk with each other. In the meanwhile I had retrieved my male cyndaquil, dully noting that Ronnie retrieved his magby at some point.
This more or less summed up the events of the past few hours, the whole group had decided to chill in the room Ronnie and I had. I stare at cyndaquil's pokeball even harder.
"How about Flare?" Laura offered.
"Too cliché." Elaina shoots down.
"Perhaps Chad?" Ronald tried. I wasn't surprised to hear such a crap name from him, he previously revealed that his magby's name would now be Maximum Throttle, or Max for short.
I shot him a glare for even considering it. Though Flare wasn't much better.
"Sorry." He said with a sheepish smile, realizing the stupidity of the name "Chad".
"What exactly are you looking for? Maybe a naming theme would help?" Elaina asks.
"A naming theme?" Ronald and I ask simultaneously.
"A naming theme is when basically all the names of your pokemon are similar in some aspect. My team is named after many precious stones." Laura states matter-of-factly, now that she mentioned it, I had noticed a pattern.
I quickly shook off the idea of naming them in this fashion. I don't care about such things; I just need a name that felt right.
"Cool!" Ronnie beams, enthralled with the idea.
"I could name my next pokemon Gas Pedal, or maybe Ignition or something like that!" He continued happily.
Something in me went off. Or maybe flicked on, I wasn't sure. I leaped from the bed, filled with momentary excitement.
"That's it!" I cheer.
Elaina and Laura looked at me as if I had gone crazy.
"Ignition?" Elaina slowly asks.
"Pssh, no that's lame!" I say shoving the thought away, Ronnie seemed visibly downed by the insult.
"Then what?" They all ask.
"Ignis." I answer, a smug look plainly shown on my face.
"Ignis?" Laura repeats.
"Where did you get that name?" Elaina asks.
I shrug. "Just felt right."
"I think that's the name of a flame spirit or god or something like that." Ronnie says.
The girls stare at him. "How do you know that?"
"I like to read." He says meekly.
"And out of everything, you come up with Maximum Throttle?" They ask.
"What? It's a cool name!" He defends.
I couldn't help but laugh at him, neither could they; we all share a good laugh.
Laura and Elaina leave soon after, leaving Ronnie and I alone. I let Ignis out of his pokeball.
He sits on my bed and watches me; I can't help but notice the pang of fear in his eyes. I pat him on the head and pull out a bag of pokefood from my pack. Something I had purchased earlier.
I tapped the cyndaquil on its head. "Ignis." I say. He looks at me, so I reward him with a piece of food. He eats it graciously. When he is done I tap him on the head once again.
"Ignis."
He looks at me and I give him more food. When he finishes it, I repeat the process.
"What are you doing?" Ronnie asks me as I repeat another cycle.
"Teaching him to respond to his name." I say.
I tap Ignis on the head again, and I say his name. He looks at me, but this time I with hold the food.
"How does that teach him his name?" He asks.
"Well, right now he is associating it with food, but with some more time and work he won't need an incentive. It is basically psychology." I explain.
"How do you know this?" He asks.
"You pick stuff up when your cousins the champ and everyone else in your family is a trainer." I say, shrugging.
"Oh, I see."
He stays quiet and I go through the same process with Ignis. He seems to be understanding that his name meant food. Tomorrow I think I'll work on it some more.
I return Ignis to his pokeball and lay down.
"Hey, Emily… Why haven't I ever seen you before? More or less even hear about you?"
'Shit.'
"Well I guess that is because I live in Sinnoh with my mom. We don't really talk to each other much, but I cam down for the funeral. I decided to stay with grandma for a little while. She wanted me to be a trainer like everyone else in the family, so here I am. I thought why the hell not." It is true, I do have an aunt in Sinnoh, my dad's sister, apparently she has like three girls, but relations between us and them aren't too good.
"Oh." Was all he said.
I tell him I'm going to bed and he turns off the lights, finding it to be a good idea.
"Hey Emily?"
"Yeah?"
"Maximum Throttle isn't that bad of a name is it?"
Laura and Elaina had woken us up early and dragged us out towards route 29. We stand near a grove of trees, fairly far away from the main route. A place where we won't be bothered and we won't bother others.
"Today, Elaina and I will help both of you get associated with your pokemon. This will mean getting them to understand their names and respond to them. Another part will be of physically draining your pokemon. Any questions?"
Neither of us had any, so we began the training session. Quickly Elaina and Laura realized that I didn't need them, and left me to my own devices. Opting to help Ronnie instead.
Ignis learned his name relatively fast, and learned to respond to it even faster. Despite this I intended to keep practicing this for the next week, just to be sure it stayed. So for the remainder of the day that I had left, I focused on having Ignis becoming familiar with his own moves.
The lab rats at Elms Lab had already installed his basic moves into him. He already knew how to respond to the commands and launch the appropriate moves. Ignis's ember is a little weak and he'd run out of stamina after the third puff of flame. This can easily be worked on.
Despite the fire weakness, his physical attacks are superb. He can launch five tackles before they lose power and about seven before he loses his breath. Quick attack is a seemingly devastating attack for him; he disappears in a blur and returns before I can even blink. Speed seems to be his strong suit, but his stamina is seriously lacking.
That aside, Ignis seems to have a shy nature. He had warmed up to me a bit, but around the others I can see him physically tense and cower. Bravery and confidence isn't something you can teach a pokemon, it usually comes with time.
In what seemed like a blink the day had come to an end, the sun had begun to sink away in the purple hazy sky. I return Ignis to his pokeball and start my walk to join the group. In my training I had accidentally spaced my self farther than them.
"Ethan…" Navi appears in-front of me. My heart skips a few beats and begins to pound faster against my chest.
"Hey." I breathe out.
"I have news from dream world." She says.
"Is it about another god that wants me dead?" I ask.
"No, it's about the same one."
"What is it this time?" I ask, irritated at the thought of cresselia.
"I over heard Selena talking to another ambassador, apparently they are going to attempt taking your life again. And soon."
"How did you find this out?"
"Well, lets just say I was watching her for a while. They really want you dead Ethan." She says worried.
I let out a sigh. "Well let them try. Nothing I can do about it except be careful." I say.
"Any idea on what they have planned?"
"No, well. Cresselia has domain over the lesser bird types; they will do anything she commands them to do. So maybe another flock attacks?"
"Maybe… Thanks for the heads up." There is probably more to the scheme than just birds, I'm sure of it.
"You're welcome."
"So what now?" I ask.
"I think I'll be sticking around for a while, to make sure you don't die. Haven't really planned past that."
"Oh thanks."
I reach the group, Navi invisibly in tow.
"Ah Emily! Good to see you returning! How was training?" Laura asks.
"It went well, Ignis needs training in stamina and maybe getting more accustomed to his move set." I say.
"Well glad to hear it!" Elaina says with a smile.
"Well I bet you can't guess what we start doing tomorrow?" Ronnie says with a smile.
"What?"
"Tomorrow we start looking for a pokemon to capture!" He says.
At that moment I couldn't help but feel dread. And I think I know why.
Author's Notes: Hey guys! I'm back in black! Kinda. I know this is a measly chapter to come back to, and I'm sorry for that. I really am. I intend to make the next chapter a long one. Also, I'm revamping all the old chapters, adding some more plot, fixing problems, making it clearer, and adding more dialogue and battle scenes. As of the moment I have gone through chapters 1, 2, and 3. So check those out!
I've updated Champion of Fang not too long ago and began a new story called "Before". I'm having a great time writing both right now and will be putting up chapters for them hopefully soon.
Again I am sorry. I thought I was going to give up on this for a while, but recently I've become irritated about giving up on things so easily, so I came back. And re-found my inspiration.
I hope I still have a following. Review! Please?- Lax
P.S. Anyone want to make fan art for the story? Just throwing that out there.
P.S.S. I'm still accepting OCs. Since I need them with the new direction I am going.