This chapter's a bit longer than usual! Whether that's a good or bad thing… Well, I'll just let you decide for yourselves! You good, independent, readers, you… guys… thanks…
Oof, Shadow. So close, but just… Oof… -_-
The young group arrived at the pokemon center in a matter of minutes. Pushing open the doors, Roddy walked into a well-kempt lobby area with cushioned seats along one side and an array of tables and booths on the other. Straight ahead was a long counter, presumably leading to the medical rooms. To the right of the counter were three video telephone systems, and to the left was a staircase leading up to another level.
From behind the counter, a familiar pink-haired lady in a white nurse's gown stood beside a sleek, radiant Chansey, which let out a cheerful welcome to the four newcomers.
"Well hello there Lily, April, and Jackson," the lady at the counter greeted the kids. "And…" she went on, turning to Roddy, "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met before."
"My name's Roddy," he said. "I'm April and Jackson's cousin, from Johto."
"It's nice to meet you, Roddy," the pink-haired nurse said, smiling sweetly. "Is this your first time to Hoenn?"
"Yep," Roddy affirmed. "I'm actually planning on starting a journey here in Hoenn."
"That's great!" the lady exclaimed. "Have you met with Professor Alder yet?"
Jackson cut in, explaining, "We haven't taken him over there quite yet. You see, he just sailed in yesterday."
"Oh, is that so?"
"Yep, that's the truth!" April chimed in. "All he's done so far is sleep, eat ice cream, and have a pokemon battle." She counted off the list dramatically on her fingers, as if she couldn't believe that's all they had done since Roddy got here.
"Speaking of our pokemon battle," Lily interrupted; "that's actually the reason we came here, Nurse Joy. We were hoping you could look over our pokemon for us."
"Of course, no problem!" the nurse said, pulling out a tray with six round slots from under the counter. "Just set your pokeballs in here and I'll have Chansey take them back to the examination room."
So there are Nurse Joys in the other regions, Roddy noted to himself. I mean, I figured she was a Joy just by looking at her, but I didn't want to make an even bigger fool out of myself today, he reflected, chuckling inwardly.
The four kids drew out their pokeballs and placed them on the tray. As the chipper Chansey carried it through the door behind the front counter, Roddy heard a faint voice and glanced sideways. His attention was immediately caught by a trio of people dressed in black uniforms with dark violet ball caps and goggles. They were immersed in a hushed conversation until one of them, the only girl in the group, suddenly gestured toward the door. Immediately they all straightened up and began joking among themselves.
Hey, Roddy noted, those are the same uniforms that those people on the ship were wearing. He turned again at the sound of the front doors sliding open. A boy who looked maybe a bit younger than Roddy walked in, hands in his pockets. He turned toward the side of the room where the uniformed trio was standing and took a seat at one of the booths.
"Roddy," Jackson interrupted his thoughts, "let's go and sit over there while we wait for our pokemon." Tearing his gaze from the curious bunch, Roddy saw April and Lily already walking across the pokemon center to sit on the plush, cushiony chairs on the opposite side of the room.
"Alright," Roddy agreed distantly. As he walked over to join his friends, Roddy faintly heard the name "Dustin" and, looking over his shoulder once more, saw the newly arrived boy give a nod of affirmation. Roddy couldn't hear any more from across the room, but he saw the boy shaking his head with a helpless gesture at what Roddy presumed was a question from one of the uniformed people.
Lily and April looked up as the two boys walked over to them. "So," Lily said, "do you guys just want to sit in here and wait for our pokemon, or should we go walk around for a bit?"
"It probably won't take Nurse Joy too long to check up on our pokemon, but we could go show Roddy around some more," Jackson said.
"I'm just following you guys," Roddy said, throwing up his hands in an indecisive gesture. "But true, I wouldn't mind exploring the city a little more."
April bounced up out of her chair. "Let's go then!" she said, still full of energy.
The other three kids followed April out of the pokemon center and back into the pleasantly warm outdoors. A mildly crisp breeze blew through the kids' hair, and the sun beaming down sharply on them made the afternoon air feel extra refreshing. The only disturbance in the peaceful tranquility was a heavy, repetitive clunking noise sounding from somewhere behind the pokemon center.
The group of friends did not need to confirm which direction to pursue from the doorway; all four of them, with piquing curiosity, headed toward the source of the sound.
Clearing the edge of the building, a Combusken came into view, pounding on a large tree with a series of powerful kicks. Roddy marveled at the look of pure determination on the pokemon's face.
"Bus-... bus-... BUSKEN!" the orange and yellow pokemon bellowed, the excruciating effort evident in its cry. Suddenly, the Combusken's foot burst into flames. As it smashed the tree with one final kick, a pillar of flames shot up the trunk, exploding in a mess of fireworks halfway up the massive growth.
The twins, too, looked ready to burst, failing to contain their excitement at this marvelous, close-up display of raw power.
"Wow Combusken, you learned how to use blaze kick!"
Roddy finally noticed the Combusken's trainer, standing a little ways back, begin to walk up to meet his pokemon.
"That's so great! I can't believe how strong you've gotten. Wait, huh-?" The young man cut himself off as, with blinding intensity, Combusken began to radiate a white glow. "No way…" he breathed.
Roddy himself felt drawn in by the pokemon's sudden transformation, and he heard awed gasps from his cousins as well.
Just as the light surrounding the pokemon became so powerful that Roddy thought he might have to look away, it suddenly turned a fiery red and escalated into a red-hot explosion, disappearing as suddenly as it started. Where the trainer's Combusken had been standing a moment before was a new pokemon, slightly bigger and sharper, but with the same fiery expression on its face.
"Wow, Blaziken!" the trainer exclaimed incredulously. "There's absolutely no way we're going to lose that gym battle now!" Trainer and pokemon, both looking equally fired up, locked forearms with a knowing gesture. Their grins turned to looks of sheepish confusion, though, as they turned to see the two twins rushing toward them like a couple of Munchlax to a plate of sandwiches.
"Hehe, wow!" April shrieked, sliding to a halt just short of the fiery pokemon.
"Awesome!" Jackson exclaimed, matching his sister's eager excitement. "That Combusken just evolved- into a Blaziken!"
"I know!"
"So cool!"
"Mmhm! That's the truth!"
The two kids continued their wildly enthusiastic praise of the newly evolved pokemon, while its trainer stood just off to the side, one arm awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, an embarrassed expression fixed upon his face.
"Er…" the young man stuttered, clearly taken aback by the twins' rapid onslaught of praises. "Hehe, umm..." he started again awkwardly, still lost for words.
Roddy and Lily, just as embarrassed about their friends' actions, made their way over toward the unfamiliar duo in a more civilized manner. Sharing a glance with each other, though, they couldn't help but break into cheesy grins at the silliness of the whole scenario.
Lily was the first to speak up, breaking the newly met trainer out of his surprised state. "Hey there! Sorry about our friends here; they're huge fans of the pokemon Blaziken, and seeing your Combusken evolve just now really got them going, you know? Oh, and my name's Lily. This here is Roddy, and the two drooling dopes over there are April and Jackson."
The twins didn't even react to Lily's derisive introduction; they were too busy admiring the blaze pokemon to notice Lily pointing a thumb over her shoulder at the two of them. Unlike its trainer, Blaziken didn't seem bothered by the extra attention, taking the opportunity to show off its newly developed muscles and defined sense of swagger. Roddy thought he glimpsed a string of drool actually hanging from April's mouth, verifying Lily's description and making the introduction all the more humorous.
Turning back to the new guy, Roddy offered his hand, saying, "Nice to meet ya. I'm Roddy."
Smiling and seeming to relax a bit, the trainer shook Roddy's outstretched hand. "The pleasure's all mine, Roddy; Lily," nodding at each of them in turn. "It seems like I've got some fans now, huh? ...Or at least my new Blaziken does, anyway."
All three of them chuckled, while April and Jackson finally turned and bounced over to join the group. The two of them looked like they would burst into hysterical excitement once again, until Jackson looked over at Roddy and Lily and noticed their raised eyebrows and amused smirks. Reddening for the briefest of moments, Jackson lowered his head, then turned to the Blaziken's trainer and hastily blurted, "We're so sorry, sir! We didn't mean to intrude on your training or anything, it's just-"
"Your Blaziken is so awesome!" April finished for him, eyes still sparkling with awe and excitement. "And how it evolved just now; it was amazing!"
Now that the new trainer had overcome his initial surprise and regained his composure, he seemed to be catching some of his pokemon's sense of pride.
"Haha, it was nothing!" he said clapping his hands together, pleased to have some newfound admirers. "And please call me Ross; that is my name after all!" Ross finished his introduction with a hearty chuckle.
"So Ross," Jackson began, returning to his normal, controlled self, "are you training here to take on the Petalburg Gym?"
"You bet we are!" Ross confirmed, eyes blazing. "And we're not just training to take the gym on; we're going to beat that Norman guy! Am I right?" Directing the last line to his Blaziken, the two of them once again locked forearms in a confident gesture, laughing determinedly.
Roddy, Lily, and Jackson looked on dryly at the duo's bold display, and even April seemed to be losing some of her bubbly intrigue. Noticing that he had played the showmanship card as far as it would go, Ross switched gears once again.
"So are any of you four pokemon trainers yourselves?"
April was, unsurprisingly, the quickest to reply.
"Yep!" she said. "Actually, all of us have pokemon of our own!"
"Really?" said Ross, seeming slightly surprised.
"That's right," Jackson explained. "April and I will be finishing up our pokemon schooling soon, and Roddy actually just came over here from Johto, so none of us have really begun to venture around on a journey yet."
Ross again looked genuinely surprised. "From Johto, you say? Sounds like you've had quite a bit of a journey already then." Turning his attention to Lily, he continued, "And what about you, Lil'? Are you on a journey right now?"
Lily raised an eyebrow at the over-friendly use of a nickname. "No. My family has been moving around a lot lately, so I haven't had the chance to establish any travels of my own." The look in her eyes seemed to say 'but even so, I would still kick your butt in a battle.' Ross, however, didn't seem to notice this flash of expression.
Turning again to Roddy, Ross said, "Believe it or not, I'm actually not all that familiar with pokemon from the Johto region. I think it would be an awesome experience to battle with one! what d'ya say, bud? Wanna go one-on-one?"
Roddy turned to Lily, and saw his own expression mirrored on her face; both of them were mildly irked by Ross, who appeared to be only a year or two older than them, referring to them with pet nicknames. The boy was friendly enough, though, and Roddy had to admit that his fired-up attitude was getting contagious.
"Ooohh!" April squealed. "We could see Blaziken in a real battle! Come on Roddy! Please?"
Roddy looked over, seeing the excited pleading in her eyes. Glancing over further, he could see the same eagerness in Jackson's expression, albeit more restrained. Then Roddy's gaze moved over Ross and his Blaziken, and the fired-up attitude was washed out of him as quickly as it had caught on.
Roddy gulped inwardly, although he could have swore it was loud enough to be heard by everyone around him.
Am I even ready for this? I've only battled once in my life… and that was just earlier today! It sounds like the twins have always dreamed of seeing a Blaziken in battle, but if it's against me I don't think it would be much of a battle at all.
Roddy looked around the group of eager, energetic individuals once more. Even Lily looked more than a little curious to see how a battle between Ross and himself would turn out. Nobody seemed to take into account that Roddy was a beginning trainer, while Ross and his Blaziken were obviously well-trained partners.
I don't think I can accept his challenge...
Why do we still use the word flavor to describe different types of food? Like ice cream and suckers and Kool-Aid, you know? "Flavor." It's just so boring. I mean, saying I want a cherry flavored snow cone… It's just flat; emotionless even. So when somebody asks me whether I'd like ice cream or a snow cone, and what kind, I like to reply: "I'll take a snow cone, please; Cherry Edition." There's just so much more… power… behind that word, don't you think? Chocolate Edition; Grape Edition; Root Beer Edition; Banana Split with Whip Hold the Walnuts – Edition. It's just way more interesting and meaningful and whatnot.
Yup. Way better.
Definitely.
~Shadow