You slept well. It took a long time to get Robin to just relax and go to sleep after your little joke. It was worth it though. The mental image of the face she made is getting safely tucked away in your inner vault. It really is a shame you didn't take a picture.
Waking up is hard. You're very comfortable. You don't remember why, but you felt disappointed earlier when something warm and soft you were snuggling with retracted it's grip from you. Your ears are alert first. Someone is making breakfast. Your nose agrees. It smells good.
Lazily, your eyes drag themselves open, but not before getting a few extra long blinks in. You get dressed and crawl out of the tent, where you see Robin making pancakes. Your stomach protests that Taste hasn't gotten a turn yet, and demands that you exercise it immediately You are happy to comply. Robin hands you a plate and you dig in
"Umphghg!" You say between bites. "Gohmaeghuhd, gdish ish sho ghood." You can feel your eyes roll almost to the back of your head. Robin just tries to quickly brush a little of the pancakes off your cheek and smiles before going back to eating hers. Finally you swallow. "Where's Vance?"
Robin points with her cutlery. "He's doing some exercise over there."
Your eyes follow Robin's fork as it descend back down to her plate. That's when you notice it, just beside her. The Hounder Robin took from her dad is sitting patiently and silently beside her. You don't even need to see the markings to know that it's not Devon. Devon always full of energy, and the few times he isn't, he wants to cuddle or rest his head on your lap. This Houndour is practically a statue. He must have a lot of discipline. Robin tosses him a the last bit of her pancake, and his stoicism evaporates.
"Good girl!" she says. You are corrected, it's a girl.
After scarfing down the rest of your food, you head over to where Robin pointed. Vance is grimacing as he's doing pushups. "C'mon Vance. No pain, no gain". He still looks like he's in rough shape from his fight. That's right, you promised you'd help train him. It probably won't take that much of your time.
You decide to let out Devon, your Houndour, so he can play with Robin's Houndour. You tell Devon to go play with the other Hounder and he runs off. You hear Robin giggle and say "Devon! Stop it"! He must be licking her face or something.
"Alright Vance, I think it's time you met Ursaring as her trainer for the first time." Is it a her? You suppose it doesn't really matter right now.
Vance hesitates. Then braces himself for a fight and reaches for his Pokeball. "OK, here goes."
"Wait!" You stop him. "Take out Machop first, just in case."
Vance takes out his Machop, who assumes a fighting stance right away.
"Ok Ursaring, come on out!" Vance yells. The sound of a Pokeball opening makes you and Machop suddenly more alert. The form of the giant Pokemon fills an empty space and makes the entire area feel just a little smaller. Ursaring looks like it just woke up from a nap. It rises to it's feet and lets out a mighty roar as it sees Vance.
Vance assumes a fighting stance that mirrors Machop's.
You keep your eyes on Ursaring, but move your face to speak to Vance. "Just hold on. See what Ursaring does first." You take out your flute. You hope Vance doesn't take that as a lack of faith in what you just instructed him on.
Vance and Ursaring stare at each other for a good long while. The air is thick with tension. Finally, Vance moves first. He starts to mimic Ursaring's posture, which can only be described as the obvious form of an angry bear. Vance begins to move closer to it. It's mouth shoots open and it displays it's teeth. There's a menacing growl, but little actual movement from Ursaring.
Vance stops.
Vance keeps facing the menacing Pokemon, but He looks to you for guidance. You point your head towards Ursaring and mouth 'keep going', then you take your flute back up to your lips. He keeps slowly advancing until he's withing touching, or striking distance. Ursaring's growls are loud now, and it extends it's claws.
Still Vance doesn't back down. He maintains eye contact, but doesn't move closer. Ursaring keeps it's posture, but doesn't seem to want to fight again unless pushed.
The situation seems to be at a standstill. At least, that's what you thought. Vance steps on a twig, which causes the Ursaring to tense up once more and bring it's paws back in preparation to strike. Machop comes rushing in from behind Vance and starts attacking it. You start playing your flute, but the two Pokemon are scrapping hard and you're not even sure if you're registering to them at all.
"Vance, tell them to stop. Be authoritative!"
Vance immediately jumps into the fray. He grabs Machop by the arm and pulls him off, and pushes Ursaring back with a one-handed shove. He yells at both of them, "STOP!" It amazes you at how much physical power he can just summon like that. Machop tries to come in for another go at it, but he holds it back. On his other side, Ursaring tries to push passed Vance to get at Machop, and he grabs it by the scruff and pushes it hard against a tree.
Both Pokemon stop moving. He glares and Machop first, who backs down easily. He glares and Ursaring right after. It snarls and even roars, but doesn't make a move to outright attack him.
Before things explode again, you start playing the flute. After a few moments, Vance lets go of both Pokemon. "That's better. Nobody fights unless I tell them." He glares at Machop when he says that. He turns back to Ursaring. "I don't want to fight you. You're my Pokemon now, and I need you to trust me." Ursaring doesn't do anything for a moment, then just snorts and looks away. "Well try again tomorrow." Vance recalls Ursaring to it's Pokeball.
He looks at Machop. "I don't know if you were trying to protect me or if you just wanted a rematch. You shouldn't attack without me saying so, understand?"
Machop kicks at the dirt like a small child, then nods. Vance recalls him. He walks over to you "Thanks. I know things didn't go as great as we hoped, but I don't think I'd be willing to try again if you weren't here." He puts his large hand on your small shoulder. "We'll try again tomorrow, if that's alright with you." His smile is genuine and encouraging, from what you can read. He doesn't wait for an answer. He just heads back to the campfire where Robin is. You see Robin give you an encouraging wave in the distance before each Houndour drags her attention away as they play with her.
You guess it's time to decide which Pokemon you`ll train this morning. You'll probably only be able to give your attention to two if you want to do anything fairly specific with that Pokemon.
You feel the Pokeballs in your hand as you decide. You haven't given Trunks, your Phantump, any attention yet. It's also been awhile since Zappy Dan had a chance to shine too. Alright!
"Zappy Dan, Trunks! Come out!"
Zappy Dan just floats there. He looks neither interested or bored. He's just there. He probably won't mind if you take a minute to talk to Trunks.
"Hi Trunks!" You lean your your knees and smile at the little ghost. "I'm Kat." Trunks looks at you with it's big, wide eyes. It looks almost...scared? Shy maybe? You stick your hand out. It floats forward and instead of shaking it, rubs it's face against it. "I think we're going to get along just fine!" It rubs your hand again.
"It's so cute!" Robin says. You didn't even hear her come over because you were focusing too much on Trunks. She pets it and it rubs against her hand too. You look back and see Vance taking a turn playing with the Houndours.
You spend a few minutes asking Trunks what moves it knows and getting to know it better. With Robin's help, you're able to identify Tackle, Confuse Ray, Astonish, and Growth. You pet Zappy Dan as Robin helps explain the moves in more detail.
Robin lists off a few moves that a Phantumpt can learn, according to her Pokedex. A few sound interesting.
"Alright Trunks! Let's do this!" You focus on Feint Attack. A move that can't miss sounds pretty appealing. You take a few pebbles off the ground and toss them into the air "Trunks! Use Feint attack!"
Trunks tackles a single pebble, and looks to you to see if it did the right thing.
"That's close, but try to harness your...I don't know, ghostliness." You another pebble up. This time Trunks strikes at it with a slightly dark aura, but misses. You keep at it for awhile, and the accuracy slowly improves. After a few more tries, Trunks is able to hit the pebble each time. Trunks smiles up at you for affection after each success.
You pet trunks on the head. "Good Trunks! You're a quick learner."
You're just about to give Trunks a rest, when he fires off a seed in the same arc that you were tossing pebbles. It bounces off your head. He looks proud that he was able to mimic you. "Close Trunks, but I don't think you're all the way there yet. Keep at it though." Trunks lets out a happy noise and tries to summon another seed to fire off. He struggles for a minute and nothing happens. Then a see falls out from on top of his head. It doesn't seem to do anything when it hits the ground. "We'll work on it Trunks. You're probably passed the hardest part I bet. Don't push yourself too hard." He looks up at you happily.
Robin latches onto Trunks before you can say anything else. "He's so cute!"
Now it's Zappy Dan's turn.
"Zappy Dan, let's focus on your defense. I want you to be a steel wall." Nothing will hurt Dan if you can help it.
Now how to train this...You see a pile of rocks nearby. Maybe that will work. You take a medium sized one and walk back to Dan. "OK, I'm going to balance this on you, and add a few more. Tell me if it gets to be too much, OK?"
Dan spins his magnets in confirmation.
You put the rock on him, and he hovers a little lower. He already naturally hovers pretty low to begin with. You then take over a bigger one, and manage to balance that on him as well, but it forces him to touch the ground. After a few more rocks, he's buried in them on the ground. You keep asking if he's OK, to which he confirms with a sound. After a while you feel can't see Dan anymore. You can still hear him when you ask for him though.
"OK Dan, now I want you to stay still, and blast your way out. Understand?"
A small pebble explodes from the pile and whizzes right by your face. You didn't think this part through. You grab Robin and Trunks and make your way behind a tree for cover. Bits of rocks start exploding out like popcorn.
Pow! Zing! There's a Thwack as a rock smacks into the tree you're hiding behind
BOOM! Then silence.
You peer out and see that he's destroyed the pile entirely. That last shot felt a lot more powerful. Zappy Dan's form is revealed as the dust settles.
"I don't think that last one was Thundershock" Says Robin.
"Dan, can you do that last move again?"
Zappy Dan tries to produce and fire an electrical bolt, but it fizzles out before he reaches full power.
"You must need some time to recharge. We'll try again soon, OK?"
It's getting to be time to hit the road. Vance seems to have been packing things up while you were training.
You lead your group a little bit off the path and keep an eye out for any new Pokemon.
Robin and Vance are engaged in a little chitchat with you in the walking in the middle. It's a beautiful day, and just feeling the slight warm breeze on your face makes it hard to even listen to them. You can hear the sound of your group's footprints, the leaves blowing in the wind, and in the bushes just off the path you there's the the soft rustling of... actually, what is that?
Vance's voice suddenly makes itself heard in your ear. "And then I said, 'more like HitmonYOU!'" The sound you heard is drowned out by Robin's laughter. Vance jabs you in the ribs with his elbow playfully, temporarily knocking the wind out of you. You extend your arms back and stop them in their tracks, then give them both a shushing gesture and point to the bushes. They both quietly follow as you make your way to the brush to peer passed ot.
Not too far away you're able to make out a Pokemon. It's small yellow bug-looking one with pointy hair. You're not sure if it has four eyes or just two. It doesn't seem to have noticed you at all yet.
You take out your Pokedex and make sure the volume is set very low.
"Joltik, the Attaching Pokémon. Joltik attach to other, large bodied Pokemon to absorb static electricity." The Pokedex reads that it's a bug and electric type.
Huh. Guess it has to work at least once in awhile. You look back at your companions. "I already have an electric type. Does anyone here want to battle it?"
"I think I'll have my hands full with Ursaring for awhile," Vance says. You both look at Robin.
"Well, I don't know..."
You give her a sly smile. "Come on. I thought Robins ate bugs." Her eyes widen. "No wait, I have that expression mixed up. I think it was more like 'Ca-" Robin's hand covers your mouth.
"I'll go check it out! I love bug Pokemon!" She suddenly seems very enthusiastic about it. Vance looks completely confused.
Robin leaves the cover of the bush and lets herself be seen. The furry little yellow Joltik turns to face her.
"Hey little guy." She extends her hand. The Joltik doesn't look like it's happy to have a human come near it though. It hisses and leaps at her. Robin is barely able to get a Pokeball out in time.
In a flash of light, Geodude appears. He intercepts the bug and pushes it back.
"Go Robin! You've got this!"
She gives her signature little nod, then focuses her attention on the fight. "Thanks Geodude. Now follow up with a Roll Out!" You watch as Geodude brings it it's arms and rolls at the small bug. Just from the first move alone you can see that Robin shouldn't have much trouble.
You turn to Vance. Time to act sagely. "I want you to watch carefully."
"Watch which one carefully?"
"Look at-" What was it called again? Oh yeah, that's right. "Look at Joltik. It's laying down webs, keeping it's distance. Geodude is hard and scary, and it's stalling until it can learn more."
Vance nods, concentrating on the fight. You can see him move a little to try to mimic it's movements.
"The fight is about more than just being stronger. Watch how Geodude rolls. He could be going faster, but he keeps his arms out just slightly to be ready to use them if he needs to. He's also taking a path that's just a little out of the way to try to force Joltik into a corner." You're making it up as you going along, but it doesn't feel like it. It's more like your sharing your revelations as they come. You don't let Vance know that, of course.
"That didn't happen by accident. See how Robin positions herself behind Geodude? She's naturally moving over to signal to Geodude where she wants him. She doesn't have to tell him, she can just depend on body langauge." Now that you think about it, it's very impressive how quickly she's able to establish that connection. She just caught Geodude recently.
"Pay attention to her movements. See how she uses her arm every time she gives a command?" Vance nods. He's concentrating hard. "Your biggest weakness is your connection with your Pokemon. Robin can already direct her newly caught Geodude seamlessly. Try to see why that is." Vance is taking it all in. You can see the gears turn in his head. Good, you're really flying by the seat of your pants. Speaking of pants, look at Robin. "Look at Robin. See her body...language. Concentrate on the tone and firmness of her..." You stop to put your finger under Vance's jaw and tilt his head up a little bit, "Voice."
Vance smiles boyishly. You struggle not to follow where his eyes were and keep the high, wise facade going. Before you have to do much else though, Robin tosses out a Pokeball. It bounces and wiggles, but before it even stops you can tell it's going to be caught.
Robin returns, excited, arms out, ready for a hug of celebration. Vance is moving in.
Oh no he doesn't. Not after you caught him checking her out.
"Great job Robin!" You run passed Vance and give her a great big hug. Before he can squish you from behind again, you spin her out of his reach. He won't be able to butt in like this!
He quickly proves you wrong and times his inclusion just right. Robin ends up squished between the two of you. You and Vance end up with your faces inches apart. It's hard to read his face. Is he mad you tried to deny him the hug? Is he upset you assumed it would be anything other than friendly? Is he just trying to be friendly? Is he jealous? Most people are easy enough to read despite the complex thoughts running through their heads and floating up to their face. Vance is the opposite. It's like he thinks so little that you can only read him when he's concentrating on something specific. Your forehead bumps with his as Robin tries to get her face out enough to breath.
"Yeah, great job, Robin," Vance says as you both loosen the Robin sandwich and the hug breaks.
Robin collects Geodude after praising him. She pulls out the small map she had from the Pokemon center in Kindletown. "You know, we're just getting to the point where we'll have to decide if we'll see the lake or not."
"Let's check it out!" You exclaim. "I don't think we can afford a boat tour just yet, but there's still plenty to do at the beach, right?" You hitch your bag up, put your arms over Robin and Vance's shoulders, which is no easy task considering the height difference, and start marching everyone forward.
You get a few feet before Robin has to correct the direction. You misread the map by about 90 degrees. "Alright! That way!" You point confidently at your new heading.
It'll probably take the rest of the day to get there.
"Hey Vance, you must have passed by here before. Anything you can tell us?"
He strokes his imaginary beard. "I can't tell you much you don't already probably know. There's a lot of beach, the usual types of Pokemon you'd expect. The lake itself is beautiful." He looks towards to you and Robin. "I haven't been to the exact spot we're headed, but I hear it's great. You wouldn't come this way normally unless you went for the boat rides though."
You come across a group of 3 trainers. One is a skinny boy wearing a tank top, a scarf, and some sort of red beret. It's the type of hideous outfit that can only be explained by someone who follows the fashion industry. Maybe it's just the way he's wearing it or the confident stroll he has, but you grudgingly have to admit to yourself that he's somehow pulling it off. To his right is right is a much larger boy. He has an equally bold outfit, but he looks every bit of ridiculous as his outfit choice. It looks like he's trying to ape his smaller friend. There's also a fairly pretty girl there too. Just once glance and you can tell she comes from money. Her clothes look expensive but impractical, her posture is flawless for every setting except actually walking, and there's absolutely no way her hair can maintain that shape without a specialized team of skilled stylists.
The boy in the scarf looks like he's in charge. He eyes your group up and down. With a mix of disgust, flattery, and suspicion, you note that he's particularly slow when his eyes come to you. "See, these are the types of chumps I was talking about!" What did he just say? "Look at this one," he points to you, "She's traveling between two towns with gym, but what's this? Not a single badge!" He flicks his scarf over in a not-so-subtle move to show off the four badges pinned to it. "And what's with that outfit? It looks like someone took a bowie knife too it!" You're at a momentary loss for words, and do your best to hide your slight blush and indignation. You did actually modify it with a survival knife. His friends laugh. The girl's laugh is a haughty, high pitched noise that reminds you of Vlad. The big one's laugh is probably what a caveman would sound like.
The larger one's laugh sounds as dumb as he looks "Good one, Dick."
'Dick' loses his smile, and glares at the large one. "Richard. My name is Richard." He looks at you. His scowl is sharp. "What are you looking at? We're trying to have a private conversation here."
It sure seemed like he intended for you to hear it up to a second ago.
You look back at your companions. Vance has a hard, angry look. Even Robin looks steamed. She gives you a nod. You're not sure if that's a 'go get em' or that she just reads that you think poorly of them and agrees.
"What did you just say to me, you little shit?"
You get right in his face. He obviously isn't used to people standing up to him. "See, these are the types of chumps I was talking about! Look at this one," You point to Dick, "He's got four badges, but what's this? He still feels like he needs to impress! And what's with that outfit? It looks like someone stole his clothes and he had to raid a washing line!"
Robin and Vance laugh. His confidence is shaken. His minions look ready for a fight. He bounces back quickly, but with little grace. "I'm not going to take fashion advice from someone like you. What, did you pick those rags out of the trash?" He looks back at his party for backup. They force a laugh, but it really wasn't funny at all.
"Come on. I bet you're just too chicken to fight me. I'll mop the floor with you." He tries to asset himself over you.
You bounce a Pokeball off his forehead. "What, with this one? What's in here anyway?"
"That's my Pokemon!" He completely loses his cool. You toss it up in the air and he snatches it. You begin to walk away.
"What, you think that makes you a good trainer? You think it makes up for not having any badges?"
You shout back. "Whatever Dick!"
"You can't just walk away from me! Do you have any idea who I am?" He reaches for a Pokeball.
You stop and look back. "You're a punk without any badges." You reveal the 4 badges you took off of it. You toss them hard into the brush behind him, and walk away.
You expect an unapproving look from Robin, but to your surprise she just giggles, even if she's looking a little guilty for doing so. Vance has a hearty laugh. 'Dick' will find them eventually.
You hear him yelling at his crew to find the badges, and he yells some obscenities at you as you get farther away. In the back of your mind you hear your self-doubt tell you how he would have trounced you, but you suppress it. You came out ahead today, and that's all that matters.
It`s getting a bit late. You're relieved to finally arrive at the beach. The waves break gently on the sand.
Vance chimes in "There probably won't be any boats until tomorrow morning."
In the distance you see a bonfire and some young people hanging out. You can hear a guitar and some singing.