Chapter 4:

Brothers

Noelle, Ariya, and their pokémon partners continued to exit Floaroma Town through the South exit. Upon leaving, they were confronted with another long path. "Just at the end of this path is where we will get to Jubilife City," Ariya told Noelle.

They continued southward, and eventually ran into a sheer cliff dead-end. "Look, Noelle, there is an entrance to a cave right over there! It might lead down to the bottom of this cliff," Ariya said, pointing to the cave entrance. Noelle nodded his head and they made their way over to the cave entrance.

Once inside the cave, they both realized it was abnormally freezing inside. The walked through a few steps and had Ralts move some rocks that were blocking their path with his psychic powers. Past the rocks they looked to the right and saw that the water that was in the cave was completely frozen solid. "I wonder why it is so cold in here," Noelle asked as they approached the frozen water.

Ariya looked further into the cave to see some commotion up ahead. She motioned for Noelle to follow her, and in the furthest reach of the cave, were some snorunt dancing around in a circle in the middle of the furthest section of water. Noelle handed Ariya a pokéball and said, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She smiled at him and looked at Horsea, "Let's go Horsea."

Ariya and Noelle leaped out from behind the rock wall. The snorunt became startled and 1 of the 3 ran away immediately. "Ralts use Confusion!" "Horsea use Bubble!" they both commanded their partners.

Both attacks connected with the snorunt, but they both retaliated simultaneously with Ice Beams. "Dodge!" they both yelled.

Both pokémon dodged the Ice Beams that were hurdled their way. "Ralts use Teleport and teleport behind them!" "Horsea, use Twister on them both!"

Ralts ended up behind the snorunt, as Twisters approached them from the front. One snorunt turned around to face Ralts, and the other dodged the Twister from the front. The one that turned around neglected to notice the Twister and was thrown against a rock wall near Ralts. "Ralts use Confusion!" Noelle shouted.

Ralts hit the snorunt with a blast of energy and the snorunt struggled to get up. The other snorunt charged Horsea at full speed. His head was pointed down towards Horsea as he charged with a Headbutt. "Horsea use Bubble!" Ariya yelled to her partner. The Bubble connected and the snorunt was flipped over onto his back. "Ariya, now!" Noelle yelled from across the cavern where he had gone to join Ralts.

Both Ariya and Noelle threw pokéballs at their respective snorunt. Both balls shook as the snorunt inside fought against being captured. Suddenly, Noelle's ball clicked shut as he captured snorunt. Ariya stared patiently at her pokéball waiting for it to stop shaking. Suddenly, the ball opened and the snorunt was returned onto the field. He looked at Ariya scared and ran away screaming "Snooow!"

Ariya fell on her butt after the defeat from the wild pokémon. Noelle approached her and helped her to her feet. "Hey, you can have the one I caught. I already have two pokémon," Noelle comforted her.

"Noelle, that is yours. You caught it fairly. I will never get ahead if you do all my hard work for me and make-up for me when I fail. I will catch a pokémon, and I will do it on my own. You can look forward to it!" she said to Noelle with a smile.

The ice under feet began to crack without the snorunt keeping the cavern cold. The two of them slid back to the entrance while laughing and trying to keep their balance the entire time. Back near where they entered the cave, was a staircase leading down to another entrance to the cave. They descended the flight of stairs and approached the exit. Once outside, they looked up and saw where they were earlier before entering the cave. "Straight ahead is Jubilife City. This path should be simple I would think," Ariya said to Noelle.

The two began walking towards the city they could see hovering in the distance. As they neared the entrance to the city, they heard an intense argument near a small pond to the left. Noelle, being nosy, peered through the bushes towards the pond to see what the commotion was about. In the water below was a younger boy, probably in his late teens, wearing only swim shorts. He was extremely muscular and looked like he put a lot of effort into his appearance. His skin was very tanned, and on his head was mocha colored hair that had a very modern style. The other person in the commotion was a boy who looked very similar to the boy in the water but looked a couple of years younger. He was standing on the shore fully clothed. Noelle could make out that he was not as muscular as the other one, and his hair was cut short instead of styled.

"I do not understand why you always have to be like this! shouted the boy from the shore. "All I wanted was for you to actually put some time into practicing with me, but you won't even do that."

"Calm down. You are so dramatic. If you would just give me some time to do it when I want, then we could practice when I have time."

"What are you talking about? You are lounging around in this pond, you aren't even doing anything important right now! God, you are so annoying!"

Noelle had been squatting behind the bushes watching through a small opening. As he was trying to readjust, his body weight shifted, and he fell backwards, grasping at the bushes on the way down and making a loud rustling noise.

The boy in the water looked towards the sound and told the other boy, "Well, if that was a trainer I just heard, we can get some training in right now."

As Noelle scrambled to get up and correct himself, the two boys turned the corner, one still barely clothed. "Well, well, well. Look who we have here."

Ariya ran up to Noelle and the boys. "We were just on our way, we're sorry!"

"We challenge you two to a double battle! My little brother here wants some training with me, and you two are the perfect pair for this," said the shirtless boy. "Valeo. Get ready, we are going to win this battle."

Noelle looked at Ariya and whispered, "I mean, do we really have a choice. All our pokémon are healthy, we may as well just give it a shot. It might be fun!"

Ariya nodded as they both situated themselves for a battle. "Snorunt, go!" Noelle shouted as he threw his pokéball containing Snorunt onto the field. Snorunt emerged with a confident, "Runt!"

Ariya pointed for Horsea to move onto the battlefield next to Snorunt. "Growlithe, your turn!" said the older brother. "Jangmo-o, let's do this," said Valeo. Both the boys threw their pokéballs out onto the field and the respective pokémon emerged.

"Alright, we each have one pokémon, first team to have both pokémon knocked out, loses!" the older brother shouted across the battlefield. "Growlithe, use Ember on Snorunt!"

Growlithe spewed small flames towards Snorunt. Snorunt tried to move out of the way, but before anything could happen Ariya yelled out "Horsea, use Bubble on the embers!"

Horsea put the embers out with a single Bubble attack. "Now Horsea, use Bubble on Growlithe!" yelled Ariya. "Snorunt, use Ice Beam on Jangmo-o!" Noelle continued.

Both pokémon used their respective moves, and the older brother commanded his Growlithe to dodge the attack. "Valeo, tell your Jangmo-o to dodge!" he yelled to his younger brother.

"I… uh… Jangmo-o move out of the way!" he finally yelled. His hesitation made it a second too late ang Jangmo-o was hit with the ice.

"You have to pay attention. That is rule number one when it comes to battling. I can't hold your hand for you!" the older brother yelled.

Valeo, obviously flustered, called out for his Jangmo-o to use Headbutt on Snorunt. As Jangmo-o rushed Snorunt, he hit Growlithe with his arm which threw both off and knocked them both to the ground. "Seriously dude? Do you know how to do anything without me telling you how to do it?"

Tears welled up in Valeo's eyes, as he unexpectedly took out his pokéball and withdrew Jangmo-o. He turned around and ran towards Jubilife City. "Well, I guess that is that then," said the older brother as he approached Noelle and Ariya.

"That was so uncalled for!" yelled Ariya as he walked closer. "Why are you so mean to your brother?"

"He can't battle without me holding his hand the entire way! He needs to learn for himself how to battle, I can't just do it all for him. I'm Omar, by the way." He reached his hand out to shake Noelle's.

Noelle glanced up at him, who was still barely clothed, and was a bit embarrassed. "Is your friend always this shy?" Omar said to Ariya nodding towards Noelle.

"No, no. Sorry. I'm Noelle. This is Ariya. We just started our journey out together."

"For just starting a journey, you two battled together excellently. Sorry, let me go put my clothes on, I can walk you two into Jubilife if that's where you're headed." Omar walked back towards the water he had emerged out of.

Ariya looked at Noelle who had a little blush. She nudged him with her elbow and pushed him forward while laughing. They met up with Omar, who was now fully dressed close to the entrance of Jubilife. "Hey, I'm not always like that. My brother, he just really gets on my nerves, and I have been dealing with this for a long time. I promise I can be a nice guy."

"Yeah, sure," said Ariya. "Can we head to a pokémon center please?"

"Yeah of course, let me show you the way."

Noelle, Ariya, and Omar entered Jubilife City with a few pokémon who were out of their pokéballs. Jubilife City was a huge bustling center. There were people everywhere, there were tall buildings, and so many stores and shops for them to go to. "Over this way is the pokémon center," Omar said as he motioned them towards the southeastern part of the city. "My brother and I have lived here our whole lives," he continued, "anything you guys need, I can show you where to find it. As for now, lets all rest up our pokémon."

As the three of them approached the pokémon center, Valeo exited the building. "Valeo…" Omar started.

Valeo just turned and ran away as fast as he could. Omar stood with his arm outstretched but just looked down at the ground after Valeo ran away. Ariya walked up and put her hand on his shoulder. "Maybe you should apologize to him before anything," she said to him.

"I will see him later at home," he responded. "Let's just heal up our friends first."

They all entered the pokémon center and had Nurse Joy take their pokémon. They sat together at the café that was in the pokémon center and ordered some drinks. Ralts came bursting out from behind the counter and ran to Noelle, climbing his clothes up onto his shoulder. Nurse Joy was close behind with a tray with all the pokéballs in it that they had given her. "Thanks Nurse Joy," Omar said as he took his pokéball.

The trio exited the pokémon center with their healed pokémon in hand. "Hey, would you guys mind coming with me back to our apartment? I could use the backup for apologizing to Valeo," Omar said to Noelle and Ariya.

"We can do that for you. It's the least we can do for you helping us find the pokémon center earlier," Ariya replied.

They began walking towards a tall apartment complex building located in the center of the city. After navigating through winding halls and a couple of staircases, Omar stopped at a door. He took a deep breath and unlocked the door and turned the handle to open it. Inside, all the lights were on. "Valeo!" Omar shouted. "I'm back, can I talk to you!"

There was no response.

Omar let the other two inside and Noelle closed the door behind him. Omar made his way towards Valeo's bedroom. "Hey Val…" he said as he approached.

He stopped and investigated the room without saying another word. "What's wrong Omar?" asked Noelle.

Omar was standing in his room next to his bed with a piece of paper in his hand. He looked over to Noelle. "He's gone."