Chapter 3 – The First Real Battle
The ocean was very calm. It was just after noon as the Pokémon tour boat was cruising at a steady pace along the smooth surface of the water. The day was as beautiful as the water was calm. The tour boat carried roughly thirty tourists, all very eager to see the ocean and the nearby islands. The tour boat had was quite large and luxurious. At the front was a flat glass surface designed as a window into the mysterious water world below.
Many Lumineon and Remoraid could be seen through the floor, swimming happily. There was even the occasional Mantine. The boat was a good distance from land when the tour guide spoke through the microphone.
"And to the left in the distance you can the see the magnificent Iron Island. If you look quite carefully, you can also the west coastline of Sinnoh on the horizon."
There was some quiet murmuring going on between passengers now.
"Iron Island is our next destination, where we will take a tour of one of the caves and stop for a lunch break."
The tour boat was slowly turning towards the island in the distance. It was probably about ten nautical miles until they reached the land. A lot of the tourists were now standing on the glass floor peering down into the depths of the ocean. Suddenly, a shadow flashed past the glass of the floor.
The tourists got a sudden shock and excitedly started to ask the tour guide what it could've been.
"It was most likely just a Wailord deep down". The tour guide had seen the flash as well, and knew that the flash was too fast for a Wailord, as they move quite slowly. He didn't want to panic the guests.
He continued, "We are now only about five minutes from reaching the shore. When we depart the boat, feel free to wander around the island as you please. The cave tour is at two-thirty, which lasts for an hour. If you do not attend the cave tour, please note that we will be departing from the island at four, so try not to miss the boat."
Just as the excited guests started to take in the information, one of them suddenly pointed at the area of sky above the island.
"What's happening?" the guest asked nervously.
The clouds above the island were starting to spread apart from each other, forming a circle around the island. It happened quite quickly. It looked almost like something was pushing the clouds aside.
Without warning, a large beam of white light shot out from somewhere on the island and rose up through the centre of the clouds. A rumble could be heard from the island, and then a shockwave hit the boat, which then capsized. All of the tourists were trapped underneath the boat. One guest managed to get out from underneath the boat and desperately swam to the surface. The first thing he saw before other guests started to surface was an enormous mushroom cloud coming from the centre of Iron Island.
"What the hell?"
-- -- -- --
Zane was beginning to puff as he reached the top of the hill. He was on his way to Jubilife City to begin his Pokémon journey. The route from Sandgem Town to the city had a lot of hills, and the path was through thick forest.
As Zane made the final step to reach the peak of the almost torturous hill, he looked up from staring at the ground in exhaustion. He was almost there. This hill was definitely the largest and hardest to climb on the way to Jubilife City, and he had just beaten it. Ahead was a magnificent view. Zane could see the tops of all the trees along the path, and in the distance could see Jubilife City itself.
Jubilife City was spread out over a large area, with skyscrapers in the middle and office blocks on the outskirts. Although visible from the top of the hill, the city was still roughly half a day's walk.
Zane sighed heavily and decided to stop and have a break. He was getting very hungry. With a shrug of his shoulder, he took off his backpack and placed it gently on the grass to the side of the path. The backpack was rather roomy, having a large front pocket and a large back pocket. The back pocket is where Zane's egg was kept, wrapped in a scarf. The front pocket is where he kept all of his newly acquired equipment.
Zane began to rifle through the front pocket in search of food. He was hit with a sudden realisation: he forgot to pack food.
"Arghh CRAP!!!"
He roared so loudly that some startled Starly flew to the next tree. Zane was stuck in between Sandgem Town and Jubilife City without a scrap of food, and an extra mouth to feed.
After some more rummaging in his backpack, Zane removed his Snover's Poké Ball and called out the Pokémon.
"Snooover".
Snover looked around, taking in its surroundings, then looked at Zane with a look almost like the infamous 'Puppy Dog Eyes'.
"I'm sorry pal, I haven't got any food. I promise I will find some though. Have a stretch and come over here. I have something cool to show you".
While Snover stretched and sidled over to where Zane was standing, Zane carefully opened the back pocket of his backpack and gently removed the bright red scarf that carried the egg.
Zane began to unwrap the egg. "This is a gift from Professor Rowan. He says it will hatch soon, and he doesn't know what will hatch out of it. It will be the next addition to our team."
Snover looked at it with a slightly puzzled expression.
"Sno?"
"I've got to keep it warm, so I can't take it out much. You will have another friend to play with soon".
Zane began to put the egg back into the bag when he heard a ringing sound coming from the Sandgem side of the hill. He turned around just in time to dodge the bicycle that was powering straight towards him. Zane dived to the side and landed very close to where the bag was lying. He wondered how on Earth the rider of the bike managed to power up the hill, but just chalked it up to strong legs.
"Oh! I am so sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" called the bicycle rider as he pulled up and hopped off.
The rider helped Zane up whilst continuing to apologise.
Slightly dazed, Zane said, "Don't worry 'bout it".
"Oh I am so stupid sometimes! I shouldn't have been going so fast. I wasn't even concentrating."
"Really, its OK. I'm fine".
The bike rider apparently had a short attention span, as he was already starting on Zane's Snover.
"Wow what Pokémon is that? It looks so cool! Is it strong? Is it an Ice type? It looks awesome!"
Zane was starting to get annoyed now.
"Slow down, slow down. He is a Snover, and yes he is Ice as well as Grass."
"Ooh can I battle it? It would be so fun".
Before Zane had time to protest with complaints of starvation and energy loss, the bicycle rider already had his Poké Ball at the ready.
"Snover, are you up for this?"
Snover had a look of determination in his eyes and nodded, "Sno".
Snover followed Zane back about ten paces and stood in the middle of the path facing the rider. The bicycle rider had a mad smile on his face as he pressed the button on the Poké Ball and began to call out his Pokémon.
"Get ready".
Zane and Snover were waiting what seemed like an hour for the rider's Pokémon to materialise on the ground. Eventually the Pokémon appeared, and Zane thought to himself, "This should be easy".
The Pokémon sitting on the ground flared up and cried out, "Shinx!"
Zane decided to attack first.
"Snover, attack Shinx with Powder Snow!"
Snover sucked in a large breath of air and released it all at once in a freezing gust of snow.
"Shinx, jump over the Powder Snow and use Spark!"
The bicycle rider's reaction was lightning fast, as was Shinx. In a flash, the Shinx was above the Powder Snow and charging up a Spark. Zane panicked, he had never been in a battle like this. He realised that all the opponents he defeated before his journey were just easy game. Weak opponents that didn't use tactics. Zane was used to just firing attacks back and forth until one Pokémon fainted.
Zane didn't expect this kind of move from an opponent and it was a split second before Shinx Spark hit Snover square in the chest. Luckily because of Snover's Ice-Grass type, the attack didn't do too much damage.
Zane tried again to attack.
"Snover, use Razor Leaf".
Snover flailed its arms and incredibly sharp leaves flew from them, heading straight for Shinx.
"Shinx, dodge it to the side and use Bite on the Snover!"
Again, Shinx showed lightning reflexes by quickly jumping to the side and charging at Snover. Before Zane even had time to react, Shinx had clamped its jaws around Snover's arm. Snover howled in pain and staggered backwards. The bicycle rider used this as a chance to send another attack Snovers way.
"Shinx, attack Snover with Tackle."
It was all over so quickly. There was a flash of black and blue and Snover was on the ground unconscious.
"Yay! I win!"
The bicycle rider was jumping up and down and clapping his hands. Zane's heart was racing. A Shinx had just taken down his supposedly unbeatable Pokémon. The bicycle rider was walking over to Zane to shake his hand.
"Yay! Good match! That was fun wasn't it?"
Zane was absolutely speechless, lost for words. The bicycle rider recalled his Pokémon, spun around, then hopped on the bike and with a quick ring of the bell, was off down the track towards Jubilife City.
Zane started to calm down now. He recalled his Snover and packed the Poké Ball into his backpack. He kept replaying the battle over and over in his mind.
"How did I let that happen? I thought I was a good battler…"
His emotions started to flare up and he sat up against a tree with his head between his knees. His first day of being an official Pokémon trainer and he had been brutally defeated in a battle, was stuck a long way from civilization without food, and it was already beginning to reach late afternoon.
Could things get much worse?