Chapter Five
Having stayed out for the night in the area that they had found, the trio had rested up from being chased by the Beedrill and started off to be headed back towards Pewter once again. Jakkaru was beginning to gather up some of the things that were in her bag and looking them over... specifically five other PokéBalls that she had in her possession. Dixie had been standing close, looking over her shoulder, noting the fact that each PokéBall had a name written on them which Jaxx was standing off to the side, counting down the seconds when the two girls would actually be ready.
"Okay! That should be everyone at the moment..." Jakkaru said, grinning, scooping up the PokéBalls and then standing up straight while putting them away. She turned to both Dixie and Jaxx, the grin still upon her face as she skipped forwards a bit, linking arms with Dixie happily and dragging the younger girl behind her some. The incubating egg was cradled in Jakkaru's free arm as Dixie staggered a bit, trying to get back up on her feet and stable.
"So... you two finally ready to get going to Pewter City...?" Jaxx asked as Jakkaru had come up to his side along with with the colourfully dressed girl trailing behind her.
"Yup!" Jakkaru said enthusiastically, unlinking her arm with Dixie's and throwing it up into the air. It was obvious at first glance that she was very excited to be on her way once again with both of the darker-haired preteens. The brunette looked back to the both of them and her smile widened into a grin, "and guess what! Once we make it to Pewter, I'm sure that you guys can go and challenge Forrest right away when we get to the gym!"
"Sounds like a plan..." Jaxx replied, no real sense of excitement behind his tone. He shook his hair out of his face and then started down the trail that was most likely created by the many other trainers that had begun their own journeys before them. He watched as Jakkaru started forwards and then followed after her, only stopping after feeling a tug on his shirt.
"What do you want?" Jaxx asked, looking back to Dixie.
"Well... I just..." the dark-haired girl started, drawing her hands together and glancing down to shoes. "I just wanted to say thanks."
"For what? Not like I did anything for you...."
"Yes you did! You helped me back up when we were running from the Beedrill.... So yeah... thanks."
Jaxx looked at Dixie for a long moment, figuring out what to really say to her and then shrugged. He looked away and then started after Jakkaru while giving his response, "yeah... it wasn't that big of a deal. Besides, if you were to get poisoned by one of the Beedrill, it'd drag both Jakkaru and I down on this journey. Don't want that happening."
After hearing that, Dixie gave a slight smile and then skipped to be walking alongside Jaxx. Knowing that he at least cared a little bit was more than enough for her to forgive him a bit for what it was that he had said to her last night.
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"When do you think we'll be running into that brat with the Charmander again, Ruth?" Harold asked, his Murkrow perched upon his shoulder and preening itself with a content air about him.
"They're beginning trainers... I won't be surprised if this city is their first stop..." came Ruth's response as she fitted a blue-haired wig over her vibrant orange hair. She adjusted a waitress' top and then went to adjusting the bow tie that came with it before turning her attention back to Harold and continuing. "You saw them in Viridian City... and if they're like any of the typical trainers that pass this stupid region, one or all of them will be wanting to be taking the gym challenge to be getting into the Indigo League."
"And you think that us playing dress-up to fit the role of a waiter and a waitress at this restaurant is going to work...?"
"I don't see you coming up with any ideas of your own," Ruth snapped, her Meowth looking over from the booth that she was napping in and giving a rather indifferent look to the two young adults that stood there. It gave a yawn and then her ears perked a bit to the sound of other people talking in semi-hushed voices. Hopping up onto the table and then going up onto her rear legs, Meowth put her paws on the barrier between the booths and then listened to the two people sitting there, her tail swishing around a bit.
"That doesn't mean anything..." one of the two people sitting in the booth over said.
"So then you're telling me that you don't find the odd colourings of Pokémon that people have been seeing these days as odd?" the other male asked, pulling out a newspaper followed by print-outs of data and information that immediately caught the Meowth's eyes.
Hurrying across the tabletop and jumping down at Ruth's feet, Meowth pawed at the woman's legs and then motioned towards the barrier between booths. The Meowth had succeeded in grabbing both Harold and Ruth's attentions and then led them over the booth, making sure that the two of them would be quiet so that they could hear what the two guys in the booth over were talking about.
"I never said that this wasn't an odd occurrence... I just don't see how all of this would have anything to do with some of the legendary Pokémon that have been reported to have been seen in all the different regions."
"It could be just a coincidence... but haven't you also noticed odd behaviours in Pokémon that live in the wild as well? Not only in the wild, but even some Pokémon that have been with trainers that they've grown real fond of have been said to have been acting rather strange as well. Gym Leaders from all regions have been talking about it as have some of the Elites."
"... The only real thing that I can think of is what happened at the Orange Islands nearly seven years ago...."
"Exactly.... And the odd weather formations aren't something to be taken lightly, either."
"How do you mean?"
"There's been less snowfall in Snowpoint City in the Sinnoh region; Ecruteak's been experiencing harsh spikes in temperature in Johto; it's been raining almost non-stop for the past week in Lavaridge in Hoenn.... It's even snowed here in the Kanto region near Lavender Town."
"I believe you're digressing from the original matter at hand, Christophe..." the other male replied, straightening out his blazer and moving the newspaper back towards the other middle-aged man. His hand was placed right above the headline that read: 'Pokémon's Odd Colours And Behaviours... Connected?'
"Now... you've read this entire thing, though, have you not, Chris?" the man asked, glancing down to the newspaper.
"Of course, I have, Kirk..." Christophe retorted, rather disgruntled by the tone that the other had taken with him.
"Then you've read up on some of the study research that that biologist, Katy Rohme, has come up with and discussed, yes?"
"Of course... but I feel her explanations on those two aspects of Pokémon are rather flawed."
"Do you wish to take this back up to the museum and discuss it there?"
"It may be best... this place will get busy soon due to the lunch rush...."
With that... the two men gathered up their belongings and made their way to the exit. Ruth and Harold, on the other hand, stayed in the booth that was on the other side of the barrier and then looked to one another. It seemed that in that very instant, the same thought coursed through their minds as they quickly stood up from the booth.
"'Katy Rohme'?" Harold repeated as he straightened out the bow tie that came with the getup that he was currently wearing. He looked to Ruth and then frowned in thought.
"Isn't she that researcher that basically devotes herself to studying the alternate colourings of Pokémon?" Ruth questioned, bringing a hand up to her chin as she thought more about the name that was dropped by the two guys that were sitting there.
"Now that you mention it, I believe that she is..." the green-haired male responded, glancing over to his Murkrow for a moment. The dark fowl was still preening himself, now working on his wings instead of its chest. Harold tore his attention from his Pokémon and then looked back to Ruth.
"Think we should go and do a little more research on this researcher?" Ruth asked, adjusting the blue-haired wig that she had sitting on top on her head.
"Yes... but I believe that to do that, Celadon may be the better choice for reading up on her and getting some information. There's only a few things that I've actually heard about this Katy Rohme, and one of the things was that she actually attended the university that's there." After Harold had said this, however, a thoughtful expression crossed his face for a brief moment.
"Though... do you think that we should wait for those kids with the Charmander?" he asked, musing to himself as he thought about how easily that the small golden lizard seemed to have fallen in battle.
"I don't see why not..." Ruth responded, giving a slight shrug of her shoulders and moving a few stray locks of the wig back out of her face. A smirk had found its way onto her lips and she walked down the aisle of booths a couple paces. "Besides... even if that little reptile is weak, we can always either sell it for a fortune or trade it for an even stronger, rarely coloured Pokémon that we come across."
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"My feet hurt...."
"Quit complaining... we're almost there. Jeeze."
"Would you quit bickering at Dixie?" Jakkaru snapped, looking back to Jaxx with her brow furrowed. She sighed a bit and then crouched down, placing the incubator on the ground and then looking to the two others that she had decided to join on this journey to wherever it was that they were eventually going to wind up someday. Setting down her bulky bag and then opening it to pull out a small, orange device from it, Jakkaru fiddled with the interesting contraption and then finally got a map of the Kanto region to come onto the display.
"According to my PokéNav, it should take just another two hours or so to be getting into Pewter City, and Dixie can go ahead and battle Forrest if she wants to."
At that, Dixie seemed to perk up a bit and she trotted over to where it was that Jakkaru was crouched and then looked over her shoulder, wanting to see the map and what was left to walk before actually getting to her first gym battle. There was a grin etched upon her face as she looked to the distance that the navigator said that they had left to travel. However, her thoughts were broken as after Jaxx had spoken up.
"Are you really sure that you have what it even takes to be battling and defeating a Gym Leader in a Pokémon battle, Dixie?"
"Well... yeah, of course!" Dixie responded, standing up straight and turning to face Jaxx. She folded her arms over her chest as she heard a scoff escape Jaxx's lips. There was a sense of irritation that Dixie felt bubble up when she saw how Jaxx seemed to be treating her like a kid. As far as she was concerned, Jaxx was just as much a kid as she was and shouldn't have whatever air about him that he seemed to carry.
"You've only had one real battle and your Charmander was taken down pretty easily after getting attacked by the Drowzee. You lucked out because of your Sentret that just oh-so decided to come back just because you were nice to it." With that, Jaxx placed his hand on his hip and assumed a rather smug look on his face. "You shouldn't be thinking that you'll be getting that lucky every time...."
"How do you know what I'm even thinking, huh?" Dixie snapped, her hand hovering above her bag pouch where she kept her PokéBalls.
Noticing that, Jaxx smirked a bit and then lowered his hand to slightly above where his own PokéBall capsules were. It was when Jakkaru cleared her throat, stood up and put her PokéNav away with a stern expression on her face that both Dixie and Jaxx simmered down a bit and looked over to her.
"Guys... we're not going to be getting to Pewter City any time sooner if you two keep this up. Quit your flirting and let's get going."
"F-flirting?!" both dark-haired preteens exclaimed, quickly glancing to one another and then looking back to Jakkaru with highly unamused looks on their faces.
"Me flirting with her is like us running into an Articuno! It's not going to happen!" Jaxx heatedly said, folding his arms over his chest in a huff. He irritably shook his hair out of his face and then started forwards, not even waiting for the two girls to follow after him. The quicker that they made it to Pewter, the faster they could have Dixie battle Forrest and the faster he could be getting back to Fuchsia with his brothers.
"I was just joking..." Jakkaru said in a quiet tone, quickly gathering up her things and trotting after Jaxx with Dixie at her side. She gave a slight sigh as she adjusted her bag and then looked over to Dixie for a moment, not really noticing that the younger girl still had a slightly irritated look upon her face from the flirting comment that was made.
"Is Jaxx always like that?" Jakkaru finally asked, striking up some form of conversation with Dixie.
"I guess... I don't know, really." Dixie responded, giving a shrug of her shoulders. "I've only known him for about a day...."
"Ah... right..." Jakkaru kicked at a rock as she cradled her incubator. Silence filled the air again and Jakkaru merely sighed to push away the uneasiness of it. Perhaps it was going to take a good few days of being together to actually have everyone warm up to one another. It was only a group of acquaintances after all.
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"Alright Crobat! Show that Bulbasaur your Supersonic!" yelled a teen on one side of the arena as he clenched a fist and grinned a bit. The Crobat that had been flitting silently through the air hovered for a moment and then emitted a high-pitched screech towards the small Bulbasaur that had jumped back and released a flurry of leaves in its direction, hoping to actually hit the airbourne purple bat with its Razor Leaf attack.
However, Bulbasaur's attack immediately ceased as the Supersonic waves hit its ears. The small dinosaur-looking Pokémon quickly looked around, confused as to what was going on now and even running in a direction and aiming a Tackle attack right into a large boulder that was part of the arena.
"C'mon, give up already and just come back when you can actually take me on!" jeered the spiky-haired Gym Leader as he commanded his Crobat to make an attack on the Bulbasaur.
Swooping down on the Bulbasaur, Crobat slashed at it with its wings with a Wing Attack and then took up farther into the air, turning and looking back to the Bulbasaur and its trainer. Though the Crobat's expression was usually that that seemed to be of indifference, it seemed to cackle somewhat as it saw the small grass-type stagger around the arena in a daze as it tried to shake itself from its confusion.
"Nn..." the trainer on the side of the field looked very concerned for his Bulbasaur as he watched it use a Vine Whip attack and hit nothing. Holding up the PokéBall he called back his Bulbasaur and looked down to the ground in defeat.
"I forfeit... I guess I'm not all that to be taking the Gym Challenge after all...."
"Hey... don't get down on yourself..." the Gym Leader said, calling back his own Crobat and walking across the arena to be closer to his opponent. Placing a hand on the younger boy's shoulder, the spiky-haired teen just gave him a smile and then added, "it's not going to be easy getting through the Gym Challenge, that's for sure, but there's no reason for you to be getting down on yourself because you lost one. It just means that you still have things to learn and tactics to plan out. Just remember that not everyone is going to win their first Gym battle just like that."
"Right... thanks a lot, Forrest!" the younger male said, giving a small smile. "I just guess that Bulbasaur and I will have to come back when we're stronger. But when we do, you have better be prepared!"
Giving a slight chuckle, Forrest nodded, "of course! Until then, I guess I'll be seeing you later then."
"Okay then, and thanks a lot, Forrest!" the trainer said, bowing a bit and then making his way for the doors of the Gym. Forrest watched after him until the young trainer had made his way out of the Gym completely. As he did, the young Gym Leader looked down and sighed a bit. There were still a lot of things that he had to be getting to, but he wasn't going to be getting home till later that evening. Trainers were still most likely going to be showing up so that they could be seeing if they could earn the Boulder Badge from him to be that one step further to being eligible to entering the Indigo League.
There was also the fact that things were starting to be a little weird these days and Forrest sought the help that his older brother, Brock, may have been able to give to him. It wasn't that long ago where the Steelix that Brock had entrusted to Forrest had acted oddly and had destroyed a good portion of the Gym's walls and beams.
Pacing the Gym and contemplating all of this in his mind for a good half hour or so, Forrest found himself at the section of the Gym that had been barricaded off for repairs. It wasn't anything all that great yet, but once all of the repairs were made, the Gym would hopefully be in a much better condition even before it had been unintentionally demolished.
A creak resonated throughout the Gym and Forrest immediately looked towards the door where three kids that looked a lot younger than he stood. Two girls and one male. Hm... that seemed like an odd combination of genders to be wandering the regions – to Forrest, anyways.
"Welcome to the Pewter City Gym." Forrest started, making his way to his side of the arena and looking to the newcomers that had made their appearance. He offered them a small smile and then went on to get proper introductions out of the way, "my name is Forrest, the Gym Leader of Pewter City. I'll be one to see if you can take one of those steps to being eligible to getting into the Indigo League. My policy is like those before me and I sport a mostly all rock-type offense. Which one of you is here to be taking the Gym Challenge today?"
Eying them all, Forrest clenched his fists and then put them at his hips as he awaited an answer from one or all of them. However, once Forrest's gaze fell upon the brunette of the group, he paused for a brief moment and then recognized her from a long while back. Well... there was one of them that was crossed off of his list that would be one of his potential challengers.
"Actually, it's just me that's here to be challenging you today..." the younger girl of the trio responded, stepping forwards and smiling to Forrest a bit. Taking in a breath, she continued to introducing herself, "my name is Dixie Tucker and I come from Saffron City. I've been looking very forward to having this battle, and I'm sure that it's going to be a fun experience."
Forrest looked at the young girl and then folded his arms over his chest as he motioned for her to take the vacant area that was on the opposite side of him. Following his motion, Dixie stood in the lined area that marked where it was that she was to assume position as the battle was to take place.
"Alright... if you're the one that's going to be battling me, then first things first," Forrest started, moving his hands and then drawing a PokéBall from his belt. Expanding it with the push of a button, the teenaged Gym Leader continued on, "this will be a singles battle, two-on-two. The first person to have both Pokémon knocked out loses, got it?"
Dixie nodded a bit as she processed the information that was told to her and then asked a question, "what about substitutions?"
"Ah... right.... Substitutions are allow just as long its one of the two Pokémon that you'll be using for this battle." Forrest gave a slight scowl, more at himself for forgetting something such as that and then tossed the PokéBall in his hand a couple of times. The bell for the start of the match went off and he tossed the red and while capsule out, "c'mon out, Steelix!"
"A wha--?" Dixie started, shocked as she had just grabbed one of her own PokéBall capsules and proceeded to dropping it in shock when she had heard what it was that was going to be the first Pokémon that her own would be up against. Opening upon hitting the ground, Zalaras had shaken himself after being released and gave Dixie a rather unamused look for keeping him in there for a long time.
Looking out to the field, Zalaras' expression immediately turned to that of shock just like his trainer's. Swallowing his uneasiness, the small golden lizard ran out onto the arena and stared up to the giant metallic snake as he heard the familiar robotic voice of his trainer's PokéDex.
'Steelix, the Iron Snake Pokémon.Its body has been compressed deep under the ground. As a result, it is even harder than a diamond.' Hearing that from Dexter, Dixie flinched and then pocketed the red device and then looked to her starter.
"Don't allow for that to intimidate you, Zal! Just remember that you're the one with the type advantage, yeah!" Dixie shouted, hoping for this to up her Pokémon's confidence levels to rise from her words.
Throwing a small clawed hand into the air to signal that he acknowledged what it was his trainer had said to him, Zalaras nodded and then stared up to his large, steel-type opponent. Hiding the fact that he was rather intimidated by the creature's size, Zalaras' tail flame burned more violently and he held his ground, waiting for either his trainer to call out the first move or for the opponent to tell his Steelix to be making a move first. Anticipating the large steel beast's move, the small golden lizard quickly glanced around the arena to see if there was an area that he could run to so that he may have an advantage.
"Steelix! Start this off, use Iron Tail!" Forrest called out.
Obliging to his trainer's command, Steelix's tail began to glow white and it charged forwards. Nearing the small lizard, Steelix rose his tail high into the air and then started to slam it down towards its opponent.
"Zal! Hurry and dodge that!" Dixie instructed, clenching her fists more in nervousness than in excitement.
Acting quickly on Dixie's command, Zalaras hopped to the side and narrowly avoided the tail. He felt the ground beneath him shake and then looked back to where it was that Steelix had used its attack. The thick, steel tail was embedded in the ground somewhat with cracks deriving from where it had struck. The sight at the immense power that the steel beast possessed sent a shiver up the small lizard's spine and he quickly made his way away from the Steelix to give himself some distance between him and the giant steel-type.
"Crunch, Steelix! Go!"
Opening its maw, Steelix reared up and then dove down for Zalaras, getting ready to clamp down on the small fire-type.
"Ah – Retaliate! Use Ember!" Dixie shouted, near panicking from seeing the behemoth of a snake charge down at Zalaras with its Crunch attack.
Assuming a fetal position and trembling slightly, Zalaras rose his tail high into the air and waved it around to have the embers emit from his tail flame and hopefully make the Steelix back off a bit. However, that was not the case when the small lizard felt a strong shake from the ground around him and then found himself to be in a very dark, very small area with only the light from the flame on his tail. Waving his tail even more out of panic and fear, Zalaras' Ember attack became slightly more intensified and he felt the Steelix raise back up while emitting a metallic roar of pain.
Giving a slightly surprised look, Zalaras watched as the Steelix seemed to writhe in pain, its mouth opening and closing, as if trying to get a bad taste out of its mouth. Glancing back to his tail and then looking back to his trainer for a second, Zalaras awaited more commands from her. It looked as if the Steelix was already preoccupied with trying to get the burning sensation from its mouth.
"Looks like its your chance to get Zal to use a better attack against that Steelix, Dixie..." Jaxx commented, giving a rather interested look as he continued watching the battle between the small reptile and the large steel-type.
Dixie nodded when she heard Jaxx and then called back out to Zalaras, "all right! Get in there and use... uh... Flamethrower!"
Nodding again and rushing forwards a bit, Zalaras opened his mouth for the Flamethrower attack, though much to his and Dixie's dismay, a rather weak flame emitted from his mouth and hit Steelix. The steel snake looked down to Zalaras, disgruntled by the flames that licked at his body and then swiped Zalaras back with his mighty tail.
"Hah! That's a Flamethrower?!" Forrest laughed as he watched Steelix holding the golden coloured Charmander back with his tail. He looked from the battle to Dixie and then furrowed his brow a bit. "Listen, this Gym and the challenges are for people that are serious. I can't believe that you even considered coming to here with a Charmander that hasn't even fully mastered a Flamethrower attack."
"Told you so..." Jaxx muttered underneath his breath and getting hit by Jakkaru after having said it. He growled slightly and then looked to her with a scowl, rubbing his arm where he had been struck.
"You should really just forfeit this match and come back when your Pokémon are stronger," Forrest continued, basically refusing to order his Steelix to be making anymore moves. The teen gave a shrug of his shoulders and then shook his head, "I mean... you really can't expect that weak of a Charmander to be actually able to take down a powerful Steelix such as the one that my older brother had entrusted to me."
"He's not all that weak..." Dixie said in a small voice while looking down.
Zalaras had snorted when he heard what Forrest had said about him and the flame on his tail burned more vigorously. He stepped forwards while clenching his little hands over what he could of Steelix's tail and then opened up his mouth once again. Mustering up all the power that his little body could, Zalaras shot a much more powerful Flamethrower up at the steel-type Pokémon, ceasing Forrest's chides and making him flinch somewhat.
After a couple of seconds, the Flamethrower attack fell and Zalaras shook slightly from using more power than what his body was used to. Steelix, on the other hand, was writhing more in pain after the attack and had snapped its tail into the Charmander, sending him flying into one of the arena's boulders before collapsing to the ground and trying to shake off the burning feeling that had now engulfed its body.
"Zalaras!" Dixie exclaimed, running over to where the small golden lizard had been hurdled and crouched by his side as she rose his PokéBall. She cradled him for a moment before calling him back to the capsule and then made her way back to where she was supposed to be while digging in her bag pouch for another occupied PokéBall that she could toss out for her second match-up.
"With what she has, there's no way she stands a chance..." Jaxx sighed, running a hand through his hair and frowning slightly. "Just a Sentret and a Charmander... there's no way that she could easily take this Gym...."
"Yeah... well, at least it's a good learning experience for her..." Jakkaru replied, looking from Dixie to the preteen male for a second.
Catching a glimpse of the PokéBall that Dixie had in her hand, Jaxx arched a brow and then moved a little closer to see if he could get a better look at it.
"Something up?" Jakkaru asked, just watching as Forrest had called back his Steelix from being burned by Zalaras' intense Flamethrower attack.
"Yeah... kind of... I guess..." Jaxx replied. "I dunno... just... Dixie had her Sentret in a PokéBall that had a small drawing of a hat on it. I could have sworn that that's not what I saw when I saw her pull that capsule out."
"I thought I was going to have to be a little serious for this battle.... But judging by your inexperienced and hot tempered Charmander, it seems that I'm going to have to town down what I send out into battle." Forrest said, putting Steelix's PokéBall capsule back onto his belt and then taking another one out and tossing it out into the arena.
Bursting from the capsule, a large, hovering boulder with arms was what was revealed from the white light that had engulfed it for a moment. As it had made its appearance, Dixie had taken her PokéDex out once again and flipped the device open, getting the information on the Geodude that was there.
'Geodude, the Rock Pokémon. Geodude is often found on mountain roads with half of its body buried in the ground so it can observe mountain travelers.'
"Weird..." Dixie commented, pocketing her Dex once again and then throwing out the four-pointed star marked PokéBall. "C'mon out, Riese!"
"... When'd she catch a new Pokémon?" Jaxx asked, turning his attention to Jakkaru. He saw her shrug her shoulders and then he turned back to Dixie and the Pokémon that she had sent out into the field to be battling against the Geodude. Immediately after seeing what it was that Dixie had send out, Jaxx rose a hand and placed it over his face while shaking his head in disbelief.
"You've got to be kidding me..." Jaxx said, looking from the Caterpie to Dixie. There were two things that he couldn't believe. The first being the fact that she had even caught the Pokémon and the second being the fact that she was actually using that weak of a Pokémon in a Gym battle.
"Hey... heh... w-who knows? She could come out lucky..." Jakkaru replied, trying to be at least somewhat supportive of the choice that Dixie had made.
"A Caterpie going up against a Geodude. Can't say I admire your inexperience..." Forrest sighed as he looked to the small green caterpillar Pokémon. "Geodude! Use Tackle!"
Darting forwards and into the Caterpie, Geodude sent the smaller Pokémon tumbling backwards. It hovered above it for a moment, seeing the little green bug squirm on its back as it tried to get back up on its feet to at least provide some form of retaliation.
"Riese, c'mon, you can do it! Get up and use String Shot! We're not a weak team, and I'm sure that you can show them that!" Dixie shouted, having become rather irritated by Forrest's jeers and the fact that it didn't seem that Jaxx was even providing any form of support for her.
Haphazardly getting back to her feet, the Caterpie looked up to the Geodude and then reared up on its back legs while shooting a thick series of webbing at it. The thread-like substance caught onto one of the Geodude's hands and began to wrap around it, making it immobile.
"Heh... perfect..." Forrest said, grinning to himself. "Geodude! Use that to your advantage and use Rock Polish, go!"
Having a grin stretch upon its rocky face, Geodude quickly used the webbed-up hand to polish its body and reduce the amount of drag that his body provided. The work was quick, and once the Geodude was finished, it looked as if he had come out of a rock tumbler.
"Dixie, why don't you just forfeit and come back when your Pokémon are actually more experienced, huh?" Jaxx asked, placing his hands into his pockets and looking to the Caterpie. "Look, there's going to be no way that you're even going to come out of this victorious... not with your Pokémon as inexperienced in battle as they are. We can always train your Pokémon up and come back to this at a later time."
Growling slightly, Dixie pursed her lips together and then clenched her fist over the four-point star marked capsule. Jaxx and Forrest were right... there was no way that she could possibly win this with the way that she had just waltzed in the Gym with no real experience in battling other than that brief battle that she had had with those two people that had wanted to trade for Zalaras.
"... Fine..." Dixie said after a while, raising Riese's PokéBall and withdrawing the small bug Pokémon back to it. She placed it back into her capsules pouch with the other two occupied PokéBalls and then turned her attention back to Forrest while offering a sheepish look.
"I guess I'll be returning when my Pokémon are more skilled and experienced..." Dixie told Forrest, her voice in a somewhat defeated tone.
"Another thing I'll be looking forward to, then..." Forrest replied, calling back his own Geodude. "May want to do something about calming down your Charmander, though. The fact that it acted out of anger towards Steelix was something that I had noticed. If that keeps up for too long, he may become harder to handle when you have it enter more battles later on."
"Oh... thank you for telling me that." Dixie looked back to her messenger bag and then wondered slightly about Zalaras for a moment before turning and making her way back towards both Jakkaru and Jaxx. She ignored the look on Jaxx's face and then just headed for the exit of the Gym, hearing both of the other preteens following after her.
As they made their way outside, Jaxx looked to Dixie again and then made a comment, "I really can't believe that you thought that your Caterpie would actually be something that could actually take on a Gym Leader. Dixie, you have more than I can possibly imagine at the moment that you really need to learn about battles. If you remember, you only got lucky against those two people with the Drowzee and Gloom because karma decided to repay you and had that Sentret follow us because you helped it out."
"Yeah... okay, you said something like that already..." Dixie said a little solemnly while kicking at a small rock.
"Look... if it'll help you out, I'm willing to give you a few practice battles before going back to the Gym to ask Forrest for a rematch," Jakkaru said, smiling a bit. "Besides, I think the Pokémon that I have would like to get out once in a while and have a few friendly matches with your own."
"Yeah... me too... if you want, that is..." Jaxx added, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking away. "I'm only with you two until I get back home to Fuchsia... and if getting your Pokémon more experienced for battling is what it's going to take so that you can get the Gym Challenge finished quicker, then so be it."
"... Thanks..." Dixie replied, smiling to the two of them.
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"Ugh... there hasn't been a sign of those kids at all today and this job's tiring me..." said Harold, sitting down at an empty booth and frowning slightly. He drew his hands over a saltshaker while looking over to Ruth as she took the time to adjust the blue-haired wig once again before sitting down at the booth as well. Her deep blue gaze stared at Harold rather intently and she then sighed a bit.
"I know that they've yet to make an appearance here yet... but just give it a little more time. I did tell them that we'd be seeing them again sometime... and I'm not going to allow for that Charmander to slip from our grasp like so many other alternately coloured Pokémon have already."
"But don't you think we'd have a better chance at running into those kids if we were to take disguises of a different... place...?" Harold questioned, running a hand through his hair and glancing back to the doors of the restaurant. The sky was darkening and it was going to be soon that there were going to be more people in for dinner.
"We probably could have done that... but I was going by what the travel guide said about this place." Ruth admitted, pulling out a pocket-sized book with the words, 'Live and Venture Pewter'. Fiddling with some of the pages of the book, Ruth sighed and then put it back into her apron pocket.
"Renee, Harrison... no time to be resting around anymore. We're going to be having more people show up in easily ten minutes or less..." came the manager's voice from the back.
Upon hearing that, both adults got up from the booth and made their way into the back as well to get prepped for the rest of the evening. Harold had a rather disgruntled expression on his face as he wiped his hands with the hand towel that had been tucked away in the pocket of his own apron. There was still a lot of things going through his mind... mainly about how he or Ruth would actually go about obtaining that girl's Charmander.
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"You sure about this place, Jakkaru...?" Jaxx asked, folding his arms over his chest as he stared up at the neon sign over the restaurant that he, Dixie and Jakkaru had stopped in front of. He was rather skeptical about going inside because of the appearance of the series of buildings that had lined the streets when they had made their way to this place in particular.
"Of course! C'mon! You're both with someone that's been here before!" Jakkaru laughed a bit and then turned to both of the younger kids with a grin on her face. "Besides... it's just a place to eat, and I'm sure that there's going to have to be something that we can do while we pass the time away. Dixie's Pokémon aren't going to be fully healed until tomorrow morning – so we'll just eat here and then return to the Pokémon Center to rest up ourselves and then get to training Dixie's Pokémon for battle!"
"It's also not like we're going to be staying here for that long of a time, either, Jaxx." Dixie piped up, looking to him and then staring for the door of the restaurant. Grabbing the handle of the door and then entering with both Jakkaru and Jaxx following after her, she paused for a brief moment upon stepping foot into the waiting area, allowing the scent of the place to consume her senses for that small amount of time.
Jakkaru had swiped a copy of the newspaper as she stepped in while nudging Dixie forwards a bit. The three preteens had been met by a waiter and were instantly taken to a booth for seating. The brunette merely ignored everything around her after the waiter had left when he had asked them what it was they had wanted for beverages. The older girl's eyes were caught on an article that she had caught a glimpse of when she had seen the small newspaper rack in the front.
"--karu... Jakkaru..." Dixie was pushing at her elbow somewhat, looking down at the newspaper as well. "What'cha reading?"
"Huh?" the brunette looked up from the article for a moment and then glanced from Jaxx to Dixie. "Oh... I was... there's an article in here that has to do with one of my mentors. Her name's Katy Rohme. She's a researcher from Goldenrod City back in Johto. I heard she was conducting some research studies at the lab located on Cinnabar Island."
"I've never heard of her..." Dixie said, looking up to the waiter and thanking him for the drinks when he came back around.
"Really? She's on news casts and talked about in both magazines and newspapers. It's because of her infatuation with alternately coloured Pokémon and studying them that she's actually well known. Look..." Jakkaru moved some things on the table and then spread the newspaper out, beginning to read; "'Katy Rohme's studies in alternately coloured Pokémon never cease to amaze us, and here in this article, there's more information that she's released from studies that she's conducted with the Pokémon she has both in her lab and ones that people have brought to her for observation.
'I don't believe the rubbish that's being put out about the odd colourings of Pokémon somehow being tied to the odd behaviours of them as well. I feel that the more aggressive behaviours that many different Pokémon have been expressing have had something to do with the drastic weather changes as it's disrupting all flow of all Pokémon that reside in the world.' Katy explained to us while giving a slight scoff.
'However... there was one thing that I was considering when I was conducting many of my studies, and that was that perhaps due to diets of Pokémon in certain areas, it may be adding different pigmentation to their fur or skin like the berries that grow on Pinkan Island.' There were obvious signs that Katy had indeed put a lot of thought into her studies, and she even continued into elaborating for us. 'The Pokémon that live on Pinkan Island, as I've been lucky enough to be able to actually get a few DNA samples from different species of the creatures that inhabit the island and getting to see it, it wasn't that much different than that of regularly coloured Pokémon of the same species.'
'Later, I decided to use by very own Eevee's DNA to see if there were any differences in genes or structure that made her look the way she does. After a few good weeks of researching and looking over notes from other biologists and scientists, it was apparent that it was a recessive gene that decided to make itself known in the colourations of the Pokémon. However, the alternately coloured Pokémon being more... common, so to speak, is be–' …." That was where Jakkaru stopped and looked up to both Dixie and Jaxx, a little confused.
"Something wrong?" Jaxx asked, looking over to the newspaper as well to see why it was that the brunette had stopped reading. He was actually hoping to hear more about that Katy Rohme and what it was that her studies had proven to her or what it was that her hypotheses were.
"... Someone clipped out the last bit here..." Jakkaru said, frowning and folding the newspaper back up.
"Ah... well... we can get a copy of that same one back at the Pokémon Center, can't we?" Dixie questioned, a little hopeful. She had also been wanting to hear more about what was in that article. As a girl that hungered for knowledge, she was rather disappointed that whoever decided to read that newspaper last had decided to clip a part from it.
"Hi there, can we take your order, please~?" came a female's voice, and all three youngsters looked up to see a light blue-haired woman with an order pad who was looking at them with a welcoming smile. The woman glanced around at the three of them and the smile on her face seemed to widen a bit. "Also, why don't you let your Pokémon out and let them eat, hm~? I sure that they could use a good meal after a long today."
"We dropped them off at the Pokémon Center," came the response from all three preteens in unison.
"Y-you don't say..." the waitress said, her expression falling. Quickly smiling once again, she tapped the pen to the order sheet and awaited for the teens to be placing their orders.
Getting the orders from the three kids, she walked to the back to place the order with a scowl upon her face.
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Lights lit the streets of Pewter City as the three kids made their way down along the paved walkways. Jaxx had a hand stuffed into his pocket, the other staying by the chain that carried his PokéBall capsules. Dixie trailed after him with her gaze turned upwards some and Jakkaru at her side. The trio seemed rather content, though Jakkaru had a rather pensive look on her face while she kept her pace alongside the younger girl.
"You've been pretty quiet, Jakkaru. Is there something bothering you?" Dixie asked, looking to the older girl and brushing a few stray locks of hair back behind her ear.
"Oh... I was just thinking about how odd it was in the restaurant this evening." Jakkaru replied, smoothing out her skirt a bit before continuing, "I mean... first a quarter of the article from the newspaper was missing, and then the two waiters that constantly tended to us had been asking questions about differently coloured Pokémon? I dunno... never had things like that happen before when I had gone there. Then again... it was about a year or two ago that I had actually gone."
"There was something that seemed rather familiar about those two waiters that seemed to be keeping an eye on us..." Jaxx added, merely glancing back to the two females. He shook his hair our of his face and then slowed his pace to be walking alongside the other two. Shrugging a bit and then turning his gaze to the two girls once again while continuing, "Dixie... did you notice anything familiar about the waitress that was there? I could have sworn that we had seen her before."
"Uh... well... no, not really..." Dixie replied, turning her head to look up to the older boy. "I mean... was there supposed to be something to notice that would be familiar?"
"Eh... well... it might have just been me..."
"Sorry..." Dixie said in a small voice, looking down and drawing her hands together. "I mean... they seemed really nice, that was all that I could really tell from those two."
"Alright... Well, let's just be sure to keep on out toes." Jaxx told Dixie in particular. "I'm still not all that sure about those two people that we ran into back in Viridian. Also... remember what it was that they had said to us before they had left."
"Right," Dixie looked thoughtful for a moment. "There's no way that I'm going to let those people have Zalaras. He's my friend after all!"
