A New World, A New Journey Chapter 13
The Journey continues.
Two days later...
As I learned, there are multiple path to travel on to the next town and not just one route like in the games or anime. We still got on Route 5 for our travel to a little town called Vanitèa. In the moment, we all were out of our Pokeball and stood outside of Lumiose City with Calem explaining the plan.
"Alright guys. Since the Lumiose Gym is a 3 on 3 challenge, we need to catch another Pokemon for our team. I also heard it's a really tough gym and a Trainer should have at least 4 badges before challenging it."
He waited to see if we all understood so far. We nodded and he continued: "We could still challenge it, but I want to be prepared if it's really this tough. And we need more team members anyway. So, the plan is, we travel through Route 5 and catch at least one new Pokemon for our team."
He turned back to us and looked us over before asking: "Are you all ready?" We gave happy cries and bumped our fists in the air as answer. Calem looked at me, smiling happily at seeing me, wearing my new hat and also smiling. I actually felt a little better as well. I'm still not fully up, but I hope continuing the traveling will help distracting me.
Calem called Thumper and Kitsune back in their Pokeballs and fastened them on his belt before holding his arm towards me. While I didn't mind the Pokeball so much anymore, I still stayed outside most of the time.
I climbed his arm up and hang myself on his shoulder and backpack. I'm sure this is how Pikachu feels, when he sits on Ash's shoulder. Calem adjusted his hat and walked forward. "Alright, Argon. Let's see what we can find."
After maybe 10 minutes, we came across a skater-park where a few skaters showed their tricks. We watched for a bit before continuing our way... until we were suddenly stopped by a female voice from behind us.
"Hey! Wait a moment!" the girl said, and I think I know this voice... Calem turned around and we saw a girl in a white sport outfit rushing towards us on her roller skates.
"Is that..." I thought to myself as I saw a blue and black dog on two legs following her. "Eeyup. She is." I thought with a deadpan expression.
The skater-girl, which I now identified as Gym-leader Korrina and her Lucario, came to a halt right in front of us. She and Lucario got into a pose and Korrina said: "I want to challenge you to a Pokemon battle!"
"That should be interesting." I think to myself as Calem started to grin and said: "Alright then. I saw a battlefield nearby. Let's go there."
2 minutes later, Calem and Korrina stood at the sideline of the battlefield, which was mostly just a rather big patch of dirt with a white rectangle on the ground which works as the lines of the battlefield.
Since the field was already occupied by two other trainers, we had to wait for them to finish their battle first. Seems like, when you are in the wild, you can battle other trainers nearly everywhere. But when you are close to a town or city, you have to use the prepared battlefields.
I stood beside Calem and watched the kids having their battle. One had a Fletchling and the other a Buneary.
As I watched the Buneary dodging an Peck attack from the Fletchling, I noticed Lucario had come over to my side and watching me from the corner of his eyes. As I looked to him, he quickly turned his eyes back to the battle.
As I again caught him watching at me, I asked: "Something on your mind?"
Lucario smiled a bit sheepishly and said: "Well, I was just wondering how strong you are in a battle. You have certainly an strong aura."
I was surprised to hear that, I had a strong aura. I wasn't really a fighter to begin with and had only a few battles and won even lesser. Maybe it has something to do with me being human?
"Well, I guess we will never know." I said rather neutral, which caught Lucario a bit by surprise.
"What do you mean? Aren't your trainer using you in this battle?"
I shook my head, no. "No. I'm not battling for a while. I... rather not talk about it." I said and rubbed the back of my head.
Lucario seemed a bit disappointed to hear that. "Too bad... I must confess, I was really looking forward to battling you. You have interesting Aura."
I wanted to ask him a bit more what he meant, but the other two trainers just finished their battle. Buneary won with an Ice Beam.
"Alright! Now it's our turn! Let's get ready, Lucario!" exclaimed Korrina and already moved into position, with Lucario following her.
I followed Calem as he got to his position and just stood beside him. He took Kitsune's Pokeball and released her on the battlefield.
"Alright, Kitsune. Let's show them what we got. Start with Flamethrower!"
Kitsune whirled her stick around before pointing one end at Lucario and shooting a Flamethrower at him.
"Dodge and use Power Up Punch!" Called Korrina and Lucario jumped to the side before running up to Kitsune and hitting her with the Power-Up Punch.
Without Korrina saying anything, Lucario followed up with a Bone Rush which throw Kitsune back.
"Yes! Good use of Bone Rush!" cheered Korrina, seeing no problem with her Pokemon doing his own thing.
"Damn... they are strong. But we don't give up so easily. Kitsune! Psybeam!" Kitsune followed and shoot a Psybeam at Lucario, which actually hit and this time, it throw Lucario back.
"Good hit, Kitsune. Keep it up! Another Psybeam!" Kitsune fired another Psybeam. But Korrina reacted and told Lucario to use Bone Rush to deflect the beam. It worked and Lucario run up to Kitsune and hit her again and again with the Bone Rush, which was stronger thanks to Power-up Punch.
"Use Flame Charge to get some distance between you and Lucario and use Flamethrower!" Yelled Calem.
Kitsune covered herself in flames and, instead of charging at Lucario, used the speed to get away from Lucario, who backed away from the flames. As Kitsune got out of the flames, she attacked with another Flamethrower. But Lucario was already charging at her again with another Bone Rush. And again, without Korrina saying anything.
This attack was super effective and knocked Kitsune out, who kept lying on the field with swirls in her eyes. I still can't get over the fact, the eyes are actually changing to the form of swirls when a Pokemon is knocked out.
"I think that's it! You were awesome Lucario!" Cheered Korrina and makes her way over to us. Lucario already got to Kitsune and helping her up.
Lucario patted her carefully on the back to not knock her over again, and said: "That was a great battle. You are really strong."
"Yay! That's victory number 93! Only 7 more!" cheered Korrina and gave a high five to Lucario. She then walked over to Kitsune and took a book out from her backpack. "Would it be okay, if I take your footprint? I collect them as proof that I actually won." said Korrina and showed us the many different footprints she has already collected. Kitsune nodded and allowed Korrina to put her paw into paint and pressed it on a page in the book.
"Thanks again for the battle." said Korrina and put already her skates back on. Calem smiled and said: "No problem. It was really fun, despite losing. Your Lucario is really strong." Korrina smiled at that and said: "I will hope so. As a gym leader, I can't let my opponent have it too easy." she said, oblivious to the now slack mouthed Calem, staring at her, as she already was on her way to the next challenger.
Kitsune and I looked at each other, a bit worried that our trainer has still not moved and walked over to him. Kitsune poked him with her stick in the head, with no reaction. Then, all of a sudden: "THAT WAS KORRINA!?" He screamed, shocked that he just battled such a strong gym leader.
"We really need to step up our training if we want any chance to beat her!" He says and paced along the battlefield. "Alright guys! We continue with our plan! We catch a new Pokemon on the way to the next town and train along the way. We really have to step up our game! Let's go!" He cheered and turned around to get back on the path, with Kitsune and me following behind.
"Well, this is my life now..." I thought and started humming a melody.