We awoke early the next morning, feeling very refreshed. While the weather was good the night before, nothing beats sleeping in a real bed. We made breakfast and discussed our plans while eating, deciding to head towards Petalburg City next. The trip would take just under two full days. Since we had restocked the night before, we were able to leave first thing this morning. We packed up our things and left the room, checking out with the desk downstairs before leaving the center and the town limits shortly after.
Route 102 was even more beautiful than Route 101. As opposed to the more forested path we just traveled, this area was more open. Rolling hills stretched as far as the eye could see, with pastures of flowers and small ponds abound.
"Wow, I can't believe how beautiful these areas are. I would have thought there would be more development around," I remarked.
"Pokemon are definitely to thank for that," Marc said. "They are considered our greatest natural resource and the Pokemon leagues really take minimizing the impact on their natural habitats seriously. There are still areas of development around, like the regional highway system and utilities. However, as the routes for trainers have been established for such a long time, they made sure that anything new would have limited impact. As an example, the closest highway is a few miles to the south, just in from the coast line. That way, the beach stays undisturbed and there is minimal impact to the rest of the habitat. All utilities also follow the same routes as the highways. That minimizes the footprint and allows quick response in the event of a problem."
"Huh, that makes a lot of sense. I'm glad they did it that way, there could have been much worse methods," I said, thinking back to how the world I grew up in was made. We continued walking into the afternoon before stopping for lunch. As we finished setting up, we had an unexpected guest approach our camp site.
"Uhhh…excuse me?," A voice called out, getting our attention. It was a young boy, no more than ten years old or so. He was wearing a ball cap with a tank top, shorts, and sandals. He walked up cautiously, looking a bit nervous.
"Yes, can we help you?," Ez responded as she turned to face him.
"I…was wondering if you guys were all trainers," he asked.
"We are, is everything ok?," Ez asked.
"Well…I was wondering…I want to have a Pokemon battle!," he said unexpectedly, catching the three of us off guard.
"Well, I'm sure one of us would love to give you a battle," Marc responded. "What Pokemon do you have?"
The boy pulled out a pokeball and tossed it, a flash of light revealing a Zigzagoon. "This is Scamp and he's my first Pokemon. I'm Charlie, and I want to become a strong trainer."
Marc looked at Charlie and then to me. "Hey Alex, I think this would be a good opportunity for you. Lee has a type advantage and Ez had a battle yesterday. What do you think?"
I looked down at Sienna after Marc asked me. "What do you think, Sienna?" I asked her. She smiled and stood up. I nodded to Charlie and stood up as well, approaching him. "I'm Alex, and I'll gladly accept your challenge."
"Really? Awesome, well then follow me," Charlie said, grinning ear to ear. We made our way to a spot a few feet away from our camp as Marc followed to be our referee.
"Ok guys, this will be a one on one match with Charlie using Scamp and Alex using Sienna. Are you guys ready?" Marc called out, both of us nodding in agreement. "Ok, let the match begin.
"Scamp, use Tackle!" Charlie called out as Zigzagoon took off towards Sienna.
"Sienna, dodge his attack and use Growl!" I said. Sienna moved to the side and let loose a loud cry that almost made me have to cover my ears. I could see Scamp was a little disoriented as a result. "Now, use Tackle!"
"Scamp, dodge and use Sand attack!" Scamp just barely managed to get out of the way and quickly kicked sand up at Sienna, causing some to get in her eyes. "Now, Tackle again!"
"Sienna, use Quick attack to dodge!" I called out, Sienna attempted to move, but was having a hard time seeing and took a solid hit from Scamp, knocking her back towards a stream. I began to panic as I could tell that was a hard hit and I didn't want to push her too hard in her first battle. I thought for a moment and had an idea. "Sienna, jump into the water," I called out.
She got up slowly and jumped backwards into the stream. Scamp got to within a few feet of the edge and stopped, waiting to see what she would do.
"Sienna, use Baby Doll Eyes!" I called out. Sienna jumped up from the water and landed in front of Scamp, her eyes large sweet saucers now that the sand was washed away. I could see Scamp looked off guard from her, which was what I was hoping. "Now, use Quick Attack!" Sienna launched forward as fast as she could and hit Scamp hard, sending him tumbling back almost to Charlie's feet. Scamp tried to stand, but collapsed onto his stomach in defeat.
"Scamp is unable to battle, Alex and Sienna are the winners." Marc called out.
"Way to go Sienna, great job!" I called out as I kneeled down, Sienna running up and jumping into my arms. I gave her a big hug, realizing only too late that she was still wet from the stream. I took a potion from my bag and healed up Sienna. We walked over to Charlie and Scamp a moment later.
"How's Scamp doing?" I asked Charlie.
Charlie used a potion on Scamp, who got up shortly after with a smile on his face. "I think he's ok, that was a really good battle. I wasn't expecting Sienna to jump in the water."
"Well, I figured it would be the easiest way to get the sand out of her eyes. Otherwise, I think Scamp would have knocked her out on the next hit. You guys did great," I said as I stuck my hand out again.
Charlie stood up and shook my hand. "Thank you for a good battle Alex, you as well Sienna," he said looking at her. She smiled and yipped in response.
Ez came walking over with Marc. "That was a good battle Charlie. We were just about to sit down for lunch, would you like to join us?" Ez asked.
"Sure, that would be great. Thank you guys so much," Charlie said as we walked back over to our makeshift camp.
We sat and chatted for about an hour, getting to know each other. Charlie was from Oldale Town and had a junior trainer's license. This allowed him to capture and train Pokemon, but he wasn't too able to take part in the gym challenge or travel too far from his hometown unless he went with another full trainer.
Once we finished, we packed our things and got ready to leave. While we offered to have him travel with us for a little, Charlie had to head back to Oldale town for dinner with his parents. We said our goodbyes and parted ways.
We traveled for the rest of the day and made camp as the sunset. As we were eating I looked over to Marc. "Hey Marc?" I asked.
"Yes Alex?" He responded.
"Could Sienna and I join you and Lee for your routine tomorrow? I think it would do us some good."
Marc beamed a smile at me. "Of course Alex. Tomorrow will be a good all around workout so you guys should be able to handle it no problem. Make sure you get to sleep early tonight though, cause we will be up at the break of dawn."
Sienna and I nodded in agreement, finishing up our food. We turned in early for the night, thinking about our first battle and what kind of routine Marc would put us through the following morning.