"Crawdaunt, you're doing great. Keep it up! Use Surf." The Admin said.
"Ah! Not that!" The grunt exclaimed as the wave crashed down, knocking Poochyena out in the process.
Arinia crossed the bridge, and moved out of the way of the two battlers.
"No, I will not let you foil our plan!" The grunt said.
"You don't have a choice. As you can see your teammates have left already." The Admin said.
The grunt looked around wildly, looking for his teammates, but they weren't there. The only other person he saw was Arinia.
"Well, we have company." The grunt said, pointing to Arinia.
"It's kinda hard not to, since you're blocking the path!" The Admin said.
"You may have beaten me, but I won't go away empty handed." The grunt said, making a move towards Arinia.
Arinia couldn't do anything, she was cornered. The Admin saw what he was trying to do, and stepped in front of Arinia blocking her from him.
"So you're going to protect her…. Very well." The grunt said.
Now the grunt addressed Arinia, "Girl, I challenge you to a 1 on 1 pokemon battle."
The Admin was a little worried to say the least, since he didn't know Arinia's level of skill.
"Fine. I accept your challenge." Arinia said.
The Admin looked at Arinia, and saw that she was determined. Then he moved out of the way.
"Okay, go Zubat." The grunt said, throwing his poke ball.
"Go, Katie." Arinia said, throwing her poke ball.
Now a Zubat and an Electrike appeared from their poke balls.
"Zubat, use Wing Attack." The grunt ordered.
"Katie, use tackle and then use Spark." Arinia countered.
Katie tackled Zubat, and then got hit by Wing Attack. Katie got back up, and fired off its Spark attack, which knocked Zubat out of the air, promptly fainting it.
"Whoa. She's good." The Admin thought.
"Dang it. I challenged you because I thought I could beat you. Dang it." The grunt said.
"If you're done pestering people, get lost!" The Admin said.
"Fine." The grunt said, and he turned and ran off.
Once the grunt was gone, the Admin turned to Arinia and said, "Wow, you sure showed him. If I may, can I ask how long you've been a trainer?" The Admin asked her.
"Today's my first day." Arinia replied.
"Oh, my gosh! You battled like someone, who's been a trainer for several months!" The Admin said.
Now he said, "By the way, I'm Mark, and you are…….?"
"Arinia." Arinia finished for him.
"So you're Arinia. If you don't mind my saying so, you look a lot older than most trainers." Mark said.
Arinia replied, "Well that's mainly the fact that I'm 16. My parents wanted me to finish school before I started out."
Now Mark reached into his pocket, and pulled out a blue Dive Ball.
"I want you to have this pokemon. I caught it earlier since it's rare, but I already have one. So I want you to have it." Mark said, holding out the Dive ball to Arinia.
Arinia took the poke ball somewhat reluctantly. Then she clipped it onto her belt.
"That's a Feebas. It doesn't look very pretty to start with, but when it evolves it becomes a lot prettier." Mark told Arinia.
"Okay, thanks." Arinia said.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you something. I'm a member of Team Aqua. That guy you battled was a member of Team Magma. As a team, we work hard to thwart their evil plans. Since they want to expand the landmass. While we try to stop that from happening because we know that there is a balance, and that creating more land will disrupt that balance. So that's why we work so hard to stop Team Magma." Mark told her.
Now a few more Aqua agents showed up. Two grunts grabbed Arinia. Arinia didn't fight, since she knew that this was a misunderstanding.
Mark saw the grunts grab Arinia because he asked, "What's going on here?"
"Team Magma's causing trouble as you know." One grunt said.
"Yeah, and we think she's one of them." The second grunt said.
Mark looked shocked.
He turned to Arinia and asked her, "Are you a member of Team Magma?"
"I'm not." Arinia replied.
"She's lying." One of the grunts said.
"No, I'm not." Arinia insisted.
"Then explain why you're a lot older than most trainers." The Second grunt said.
Arinia was about to explain when Mark started to speak, "I asked her that already. She said that her parents wanted her to finish school before she started on her journey."
"Oh, so that's why." The grunts said.
They now released her.
"We beg your pardon, my dear." They said to Arinia.
Mark moved over beside her.
"This is Arinia, she's a new trainer, and she's only just started out." Mark told them.
"Oh, ok." They didn't really seem to care much about her, unlike Mark.
Now a higher ranked Admin, who had more authority than Mark showed up.
"Who's this girl?" He asked.
"This is Arinia. She's a normal trainer." Mark said.
"Is this true?" He asked Arinia.
"Yes, it is true." Arinia replied.
Now the Admin said, "You should be on your way now. Go, on."
He motioned for her to leave. Arinia took a step, but then Mark stopped her.
"Why'd you stop her?" The Admin asked.
"I stopped her because she played a part in getting Team Magma to leave." Mark said.
"Oh, she did?" The Admin asked.
"Yes, she did. A grunt challenged her, she beat him, and he ran off." Mark explained.
Arinia wanted to leave because she didn't feel welcome.
The Admin turned to Arinia and said, "Then in that case, we thank you for helping."
Then he said, "Tell you what. Meet us on the beach in Staleport in a week, and we'll take you to Petalburg on our ship as our thanks."
"Thank you." Arinia said.
"You're welcome. It's the least we can do for you. Otherwise it'll take you a lot longer to get to get to Petalburg. Though before you meet back up with us, you should go to the gym in Mauville City. Now you should get a move on, because it's going to get dark soon."
"Okay, I will." Arinia now turned to leave.
"Good luck, Arinia. Do us a favor, and let Team Magma have it every time you see them." The Admin said.
"Okay." Arinia said.
"Bye, Arinia. We'll see you in a week." The Admin said.
Arinia now walked away from them not really wanting to, but knowing that she had to if she wanted to get her first badge within a weeks time. Mark watched Arinia walk away, and he felt sad to see her go.
"Cheer up, man." The higher ranked Admin told Mark.
"Oh, it's Arinia, isn't it?" He asked.
"Yes, I'm afraid that I miss her already. I can't help but think that she's something special." Mark said.
"Look, man, you'll see her again." The Admin said.
"I hope so…." Mark said.
"Look, if you love her, tell her. That's all I can say. If you don't advance on her too quickly, I'm sure that you can win her heart." The Admin said.
Arinia was now out of sight. Little did Mark know, that the love he had for Arinia would ultimately save her life.