Episode 21: The strongest bunny
Niko looked over the fence, observing the baby pokémon running around in the fields behind the daycare. He had spent much of the morning observing the small creatures as they interacted with one another, building and cultivating important social skills. He found it cathartic; a nice way to relax and take his mind off of the world around him.
He and his friends had chosen to visit the Pokémon Daycare in Solaceon Town for JJ. The curly blonde pokémon breeder was interested in learning more about the art of raising pokémon, and on the rare occasion that they passed by a regionally-renowned daycare, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn everything that he possibly could.
While JJ was sitting inside talking with the owners, Brittany and Lauren were in the fields helping one of the old couple that tended to the daycare. Niko chose to sit back and watch from afar. It wasn't that he wasn't interested in helping. No, he didn't like admitting it, but he wanted to have some quiet, alone time. And that's exactly what he got.
Eventually, the girls returned to the daycare, waving to Niko as they walked back into the building. Minutes later, all three of Niko's friends exited the daycare, saying farewell to the old couple that ran the place.
"Learn anything new?" Niko asked JJ as he pushed his arms off of the fence to stand up straight again.
"Well, kind of. I learned more about the business of running a daycare, not as much about the actual breeding part. But they did refer me to some people who study breeding, so when we get to Veilstone City I want to spend some time looking up books that people have written about it, if that's alright."
"Of course. Remember, we're only there to get the gym badge. That's it, really," Niko said as the four of them ventured northwards towards route 210. They only needed to take that route until they got to some sort of T-intersection, during which they would begin travelling east towards Veilstone City. Overall, the entire trip would take a little under a week.
"Oh! They also helped me install the daycare app on my Pokétch. I don't know what I'll do with it, but it still looks cool, here," JJ said, shoving his left wrist up to Niko's face, revealing the small screen in the middle of the watch. The screen displayed a little field with some clouds in the background. "So, if you leave any pokémon there, this app will update to show them. It's neat, isn't it?"
Niko nodded, and slowly began questioning his friend about the technology. It seemed to him that JJ hardly knew the mechanics of the app, but he was nonetheless interested in it. They talked about it—and other things JJ learned about the business of running a Pokémon Daycare—for much of the day, at least until the four of them stopped at the end of the day near a relatively steep hill on the grassy plains of route 210.
During the evening, Niko and Lauren spent some time training. Niko was trying to get piplup to learn bubblebeam, but otherwise the rest of his team spent much of the day resting and playing around. The penguin pokémon was the only one interested in training, anyways, which seemed to impress Niko. Meanwhile, Lauren was working with monferno, trying to teach her flame wheel. For this she had the help of JJ and his growlithe, who already knew the move. Roselia was also trying to learn magical leaf with limited success.
All the while, Niko and Lauren had hardly spoken to each other. After the conversations that they had with JJ and Brittany, respectively, neither of them had even considered trying to approach the other, primarily out of fear of rejection from the other. Lauren in particular was afraid of rejection, given what she knew from Brittany. Niko, on the other hand, was simply confused. He didn't exactly know how he felt, and that was the source of his fear.
The two coexisted nonetheless, even if they didn't directly speak to one another, or avidly avoided any one-on-one encounters, leaving Brittany and JJ to be with one of them constantly.
The following morning, Lauren woke up early to continue training with monferno. The woman and pokémon walked up to the top of the hill to watch the sun rise before beginning their training.
"Alright monferno, just like we practiced yesterday! Let's start by covering your body in fire!" She directed. Monferno attempted it, but couldn't quite get it right. Sensing disappointment in the playful pokémon's expression, Lauren walked over to it and sat down on the grassy hill next to it. "You're afraid, aren't you?"
Monferno looked over and nodded. Lauren laughed softly before looking out onto the plains beyond their small campsite. Route 210 was different in that the grass was far taller, making the field harder to walk through. This is in part why Lauren wanted to train specifically on the hill—she wouldn't risk starting a fire in the tall grass.
"I understand being afraid," She finally said. "I'm afraid, too," When monferno looked over at her in confusion, she continued. "Well, I, uh, like someone, but I am afraid to bring it up again, mainly because I don't to feel rejected."
Monferno nodded. However, before she could act on Lauren's predicament—as well as her own—she noticed something rustling around in the grass beneath them. Perking up, the fire monkey ran down the hill, bounding for the source of the movement. Bemused, Lauren also stood up and followed in pursuit of her pokémon.
They rushed through the tall grass, ignoring the small pokémon that they passed by. Eventually they came to a small clearing where they saw a small rabbit pokémon in some sort of battle against a kricketune. Pulling out her pokédex, Lauren took a look at the small, brown and beige rabbit with fluffy-looking ears:
"Buneary, the rabbit pokémon. Normal type. Its ears are always rolled up. They can be forcefully extended to shatter even a large boulder."
The buneary then leapt into action, charging forward at the cricket pokémon with a move that looked like quick attack. Slamming into the kricketune, it managed to knock the bug type over before getting slapped by a fury cutter from its opponent, knocking buneary backwards. The rabbit shook the attack off, choosing to rush back in at its opponent, this time bounding through the air at the kricketune, its foot glowing a bright white color. It crashed on the top of kricketune's head, knocking the pokémon downwards. Buneary then tried to finish the bug type off with what looked to Lauren like thunderpunch. The rabbit's small fist began to light up with sparks of electricity. However, as soon as it was about to hit kricketune, the electricity disappeared, surprising buneary and giving kricketune the opening it needed to retaliate with fury cutter.
Buneary was launched through the clearing and into the tall grass, collapsing onto the large leaf blades. Kricketune then began to walk away when the buneary got back up and rushed back at it with quick attack. The kricketune, noticing this, turned around and slapped the rabbit's left side, launching it in Lauren and monferno's direction before leaving again through the tall grass.
Lauren looked down at the rabbit laying in front of it. Concerned, she crouched down to get a better look at it. There were small welts on its arms and torso, suggesting that this wasn't its first battle of the day. Looking at monferno, who nodded back as if understanding what Lauren wanted to do, the blue-haired woman picked buneary up and carried it back to their campsite on the other side of the hill. There, Brittany, JJ, and Niko were all eating breakfast.
"There you—oh no, what happened?" JJ asked, getting up to see Lauren carrying the buneary.
"This buneary was injured in a fight against a kricketune. I figured maybe we could help heal it up before we leave," She said, placing the rabbit pokémon on her sleeping bag. The other nodded while their pokémon crowded around the unfamiliar pokémon. Soon enough, JJ and Brittany, with the help of their pokémon, managed to heal the buneary a bit while it was resting.
Half an hour later, buneary woke up, confused as to where it was. Upon recognizing Lauren and monferno, it frowned, as if it didn't appreciate the help that it received.
"Good morning. Feeling better?" Lauren said with a smile. "Monferno and I saw you fight that kricketune. You were very impressive and strong."
Upon hearing the compliment, buneary shook its head and sat back down.
"Well, you might be disappointed, but I enjoyed the battle. You just need to work on that thunderpunch, and you'll win next time," Lauren then stood up from her sleeping bag. "Say, would you like to train with monferno and I today? She's trying to learn a move, too, and we could definitely use a battling partner. What do you say?"
Buneary looked reluctant at first, but ultimately obliged, standing up and walking with Lauren and monferno up to the top of the hill to train. There, they practiced by exchanging moves with one another. Occasionally, JJ or Brittany would join them, the former in particular, whose growlithe helped monferno perfect the move.
Buneary proved to be a very capable battler, giving monferno a legitimate challenge. The two ended up nearly exhausting each other, but it seemed like they were getting better with their respective moves.
"Alright monferno, one last attempt and we're breaking for lunch, got it?" The playful pokémon nodded, leaping forward to create its flame wheel, successfully creating a circle of flames around its body. As it moved, the flames rotated around it, giving it the impression of an actual wheel. Buneary dove out of the way before spinning around and charging at its opponent with quick attack. Once it was upon monferno, the rabbit pokémon lifted its right fist into the air, sparks emitting from it, as it slammed it down onto monferno's face, causing the playful pokémon to crash onto its back on the ground.
Lauren and JJ both looked in awe at the buneary, who stood over monferno, victorious. That's when Lauren got an idea—why not catch the buneary? As she began to ponder it, the rabbit began to head down the hill in the same direction Lauren and monferno had travelled earlier that morning, clearly in search of kricketune.
Motioning to JJ, growlithe, and monferno, Lauren followed buneary down the hill and into the tall grass, making their way to the clearing from before. There, against a rather large rock, sat the same kricketune from before, playing a melody on its blade arms. It looked up, watching buneary approach it. The cricket pokémon ended its tune, stretching its arms to the sides in preparation for battle.
Without any hesitation, buneary bounded forward, beginning with a jump kick attack that landed successfully on its opponent. However, it left the rabbit vulnerable to a fury cutter, which kricketune managed to land successfully as well. Buneary landed on its back, kicking at kricketune as it swiped down at it. Eventually, buneary found an opening in kricketune's onslaught and spun around, quickly getting back on its two feet before charging forward with quick attack. This time, kricketune managed to evade, using fury cutter to slap the rabbit out of the way, causing buneary to roll across the dirt in the clearing. It showed clear signs of exhaustion, but didn't seem to give up.
"C'mon buneary! You can do it!" Lauren said, echoed by JJ and their pokémon. Hearing this, buneary stood in its tracks, trying to get kricketune to rush at it. The cricket pokémon took the bait, crossing its arms in preparation to use what seemed to be X-scissor. When it got close enough, buneary side-stepped the bug type, its fist glowing with electric sparks. It then moved around kricketune, landing a thunderpunch into the cricket's back, causing it to crash on its face.
Buneary stood over kricketune, just as it had with monferno before it. The cricket pokémon rolled around to look at its opponent. Realizing that it lost the match, the cricket stood back up and patted buneary on the shoulder with one of its blade-arms. It then turned and left into the tall grass.
Lauren, JJ, and their pokémon cheered and clapped for the buneary, who finally turned to recognize them. It solemnly nodded with a half-smile on its face. Before turning around to leave, Lauren called out its name.
"Buneary!" She shouted. Once she got the rabbit's attention, she continued. "Do you want to come with us on our journey? That way, you can continue to get stronger, and fight pokémon that will make you the best rabbit out there."
Once more, the rabbit pokémon stood there, presumably considering its options. Eventually, it acquiesced before nodding in confirmation. Lauren then looked down at monferno, who also agreed with a nod. Having the approval of both pokémon, she pulled out a spare pokéball from her bag and tossed it over to buneary, who clicked open the empty pokéball with its ear. The rabbit immediately went into the pokéball with a flash of red light. The ball quivered a few times before clicking, signaling that the pokémon was caught.
Elated, Lauren ran over and picked up the ball, summoning back buneary. "Welcome to the team," She said, crouching down and holding out her paw. Buneary touched the hand, and Lauren responded by covering her hand in the paw and lightly shaking it. The five of them—two trainers and three pokémon—journeyed back to the camp to show Niko and Brittany the new catch.
"Congrats, Lauren. It'll be a nice addition to your team," Niko said with a smile. Lauren hardly looked at him as she communicated her thanks. After packing up, the four continued northeast to their next destination, this time with a new and energetic addition to their burgeoning family of trainers and pokémon.