Chapter 26

The Training Begins

"C'mon Kyle!" Shonna yelled from in front of me. "Can't you go faster than that?"

"Give me a break!" I yelled, holding on tight to Arcanine's fur. "You're on what's known as one of the fastest pokemon in the world." She was so far ahead now that all I saw of her was the blue flames from Rapidash.

It wasn't long until we arrived at the small town made for the Indigo Plateau. This town was made entirely to cater to the trainers who decide to challenge the Elite Four. The food in the restaurants is free to trainers, and there are rooms available for them for no charge. We signed up at the registry, and found our room. It was smaller than the one we had rented in Cinnabar, but it was fine. We set all our stuff in the room, and had a look around. I already knew this would be our home for the next two months, and I was prepared for it. In a way I suppose it would be rather strange living with Shonna for two months, but at the same time I have already lived with her this whole time in Kanto. I guess it is different than just staying at random pokecenters and camping out under the stars. Now, we are going to be staying in one room, one little house, for two months… together.

I opened my bag, laying everything out on the bed. Most of my stuff was just cooking supplies and a few knickknacks that I picked up along the way. It was warm up here, warm enough to make me feel a little hot in my green jacket. I slid that off, hanging it over a chair at the dining room table. I glanced over, seeing Shonna take out the Teddiursa doll from her bag and putting it on her bed. Riolu and Pichu were playing with each other on the floor. They seemed to like the room too.

"Well," I stretched. "I'm ready whenever you are."

"Ready for what?" Shonna said as she and the other two looked at me.

"To train." I smiled, twirling the key on the key ring around my finger. "What? Did you think the next two months would be a vacation?"

"Well no… I just didn't think we'd start on the first day." She said, following me out the door.

"Of course!" I said as Pichu ran up my arm, resting on my shoulder. "You wanna win, don't cha?"

"I suppose so." Shonna glanced down, picking Riolu up and placing him on her shoulder. She looked around, seeing a park that was near by. "If we go past the park there's probably a couple places we can train."

"Probably." I locked the door and we walked through the park. It was beautiful, and there were all kinds of pokemon around. We walked past a pecha berry tree, and Riolu reached up to grab one. He munched on the berry happily. I looked over to Pichu who tried to reach one, but was too short. Smiling, I grabbed one and gave it to him. Just up ahead was an empty field.

"Up there's where we'll battle." I took a pokeball out as I readied for the battle. "How's two on two sound?"

"Fine by me Kyle." Shonna said, reaching for her pokeball as well.

I smiled. This is going to be the best battle I have had in a long time. I have been dying to see what she's got. "Okay then, go Pidgeot!" The bird flew in a loop around us.

"A Pidgeot? Your Pidgeotto evolved." Shonna smiled.

"Yeah, it did during the fight with Blaine." I smiled back. "What will you pick?"

"I'll pick…" Shonna threw out her Vaporeon.

Vaporeon and Pidgeot stared each other down.

"Pidgeot!" I called, making the first attack. "Wing Attack!" Lets see how good she is.

Pidgeot dove in, striking into Vaporeon. Vaporeon fell on her side, and watched as Pidgeot came back after her.

"Vaporeon! Water Pulse!" Shonna screamed.

"Perfect." I said under my breath. "Now its time for me to try out Pidgeot's new move."

Vaporeon sprayed water from its mouth. The water soaked Pidgeot and it stopped flying to shake off.

"Pidgeot, Mirror Move!" I called. "This is going to be cool."

Pidgeot opened her beak and water poured out. Vaporeon simply absorbed the water happily.

"Vaporeon absorbs water attacks and turns it into hp!" Shonna smiled. "Vaporeon! Ice beam!"

Vaporeon opened her mouth and released this time a bright blue light. It froze Pidgeot on contact.

"Hmph." I smiled. I knew that Jolteon did that with electricity, I guess I should of known that was the case with Vaporeon as well. "I guess that was a mistake on my part." I recalled Pidgeot. "You learn something new everyday though, right?" I held a new pokeball in my hand. This would be the first time I had really used this one in a battle, a real one anyway. I would like to know how it would fair. I threw out the pokeball as Dratini hopped onto the field, quickly slithering through the grass like I taught her to do.

"I guess." Shonna said, keeping her eye on Dratini. "Vaporeon! Bite!" Vaporeon ran after her.

"Dratini! Agility!" Dratini slithered with extreme speed. Vaporeon wasn't able to catch it. "Now Dratini Slam it!" Dratini whirled around and tackled into Vaporeon hard. Vaporeon fainted, but it wasn't a clear win. Even though it didn't normally happen, some how it looked like Dratini took some damage from it. She was breathing hard.

"Wow! You've really trained your Dratini." Shonna commented. I was about to say 'Thanks, Shonna.' But before I got the chance Dratini glowed a bright white. She grew about ten times the size she was before, wings developed on her head, and a blue jewel appeared on her neck. "To where she turned into a Dragonair!" Shonna commented. "Okay, guess I'll pick a good pokemon to fight that. Go Butterfree!"

"Awesome." I said as I saw the large dragon in front of me. I watched as Butterfree floated into battle. "Okay! Dragonair, Twister!"

Butterfree floated high in the air, and a small tornado swirled toward her knocking her around. "Butterfree! You've got the power, blow it back at her with Silver Wind!" Shonna cried.

"Hmm." I grinned. If her Butterfree could some how manage to blow it back it would be a very powerful attack, but, that wouldn't be likely. I would still like to see it though.

Butterfree broke free of the twister and blew it back with silver particles that swirled in it. The twister hit Dragonair back, and the silver dust cut into her. Dragonair fainted.

"Not bad." I said, returning Dragonair. "Using a combination to throw back a dragon type move at Dragonair proved very effective. I'll have to remember that one."

"I beat you?" Shonna ask skeptically, recalling Butterfree.

"Yeah?" I laughed, turning around to look at the restaurant area in the distance. "Tell you what, instead of prize money, how about I take you out? Food's on me."

"Umm… what do you mean?" I saw Shonna blush.

"You know." I turned to look at her. "A date." She blushed even more as I motioned to the restaurants. "Yeah. C'mon, we'll go to that restaurant over there."

"That's so nice." She smiled, then after a second, scowled. "Hey wait a minute, what do you mean 'Food's on me'? All the restaurants around here are free!"

* * *

Shonna and I had a good time at the restaurant. We got all we could eat at a buffet, and filled up. We left full, and arrived happy at our room. I pulled out my extra change of clothes from my book bag.

"What cha' doing?" Shonna asked, watching me.

"I'm going to take a shower." I said, throwing the clothes over my shoulder. "It's been weeks since I had a nice long shower. The showers at the pokecenter are crap."

"Yeah, I know. Save some hot water for me!" She said as I walked out of the room and into the bathroom.

I shut the door, putting my clothes on the sink counter top. I pulled off my shirt, laying it on the floor, starting a pile of dirty clothes. After that I took off the five pokeballs about my belt, laying them on the counter with my clean clothes. I turned on the shower, letting the water get hot, taking off the rest of my clothes before I hopped in. The water felt nice. Hot water ran down my body, making my muscles relax. If anything, I wanted to take a shower to just think. This league competition will be tough, and the hardest battle will be the one with Shonna. Even if we end up not getting very far, what would I do if I had to face Shonna? Could I really give it my all, or would I give in? I know that she would want me to give it my all, but how could I?

"Oh well." I said, grabbing the soap. "It's not like I don't have time to think about this." Though we don't have much time to train. There are going to be a lot of strong trainers here, a lot of people have entered into the league. We are still two months away, and still there are close to one hundred people entered.

"I hope we are strong enough."

* * *

When I came out of the shower I had forgotten about my clean clothes and pokeballs laying on the sink , so I left them there. I grabbed a towel, wrapping around my waist as I walked out the door. "Now where are my clothes?" I said, walking back into the room with Shonna. I saw her on the computer phone, but I didn't think anything of it. I opened my book bag, looking for my clothes, but they weren't there. "Now where are they?" I walked around to the little kitchen area, eyeing a box of cereal in the half open cabinet. "Awesome!" I ran up to the box looking at it. "I haven't had cereal in a long time! These people are really nice to leave this stuff for the trainers." I looked around, finding a bowl. "Hmm… I wonder." I opened the fridge to find a gallon of Moo-Moo Milk. "This just keeps getter better and better!" I said as I poured some milk into the bowl. I put it back up as I grabbed a spoon. I dug into the cereal, and man was it good.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" Shonna screamed at me with both hands on her hip.

"Eating Cereal?" I slurped, downing some of the milk. "Why? You want some?"

"No, I don't want any! You scared my poor mom to death and made me look bad." She screamed once more.

"Oh, so that's who you were on the phone with." As I said that I remembered where my clothes were. How stupid was I to not even see them on the counter. "Yeah well, you'll be all right." I stood up, walking off, still slurping my cereal in only my towel.

I finished my cereal in the bathroom while I got dressed. I still couldn't help but think about the two months, and… what we were going to do after it. What would I do? What would Shonna do?

I walked back into the bedroom, seeing Shonna asleep on her bed with Riolu. It was only then when I realized how late it was. I looked to the wall seeing that the clock was on 11pm. "Hmph." I smiled, setting down on my bed, letting Pichu curl up beside me. "Only two months." I said under my breath. I rolled over in bed, going to sleep.

* * *

The training continued, and two months felt like days as the Indigo League Tournament day finally came. Many trainers gather to challenge the Elite Four, and all of them were forced to have a preliminary tournament to select who gets to challenge them. I knew that Shonna and I were good, but I didn't realize how good we were until we started battling. We moved up the ranks so quickly and easily that we both only used two pokemon, max, sometimes only one, in our battles. We cheered each other on whenever we weren't fighting our own battles. As the finals approached, I watched the board that determined our opponents. I was taken by surprise when I saw my next opponent, but at the same time I knew it would have to happen some time. Shonna's picture appeared next to mine on the screen. Actually, if anything, I was surprised that it took until the final four before we were paired up.

"Are you ready?" Shonna asked me, holding up a cupped hand.

"You bet." I said, cupping my hand and putting it in hers, forming a fist with our two hands.

"Kyle." She said, looking at me.

"Yes?" I asked

"I want you to give it your all, no holding back, okay?"

"Same goes for you." I said.

"Contestants, Shonna and Kyle!" An intercom blared out. "Please make you're way to the battling field"

"No holding back." Shonna said once more, as she let go of my hand.

"Right." I nodded.

We both turned to walk our different ways. I walked down the hall, heading to my end of the field. The sun was bright as I stepped onto the soft grass. People were screaming and cheering as I walked up the platform to my side of the stage. When I reached the top, I looked across to see Shonna staring back at me. She had a smile on, one I had seen on her face every day that she beat me in our training. She was serious about this one, and so was I.